Remembrance
by ImaginaryArtist17
Summary: Telekinetic mutant Laurien Van Tiel is running from memories of her past in search of a new start, one such opportunity arises when she happens upon Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr at the scene of an accident that was partly her doing. Can she truly escape her past in her new life, or will it come back to haunt her stronger than ever?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi, ImaginaryArtist17 here! This is my first chapter of my first FanFiction ever, so I am very excited to share it with you all! Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men. (Sadly) But I do own the character of Laurien. Enjoy!**

The simply mundane task of just strolling down the street on the sidewalk was sweetened immensely by the perfume of autumn in the air. The crisp cold against her skin and a vent pumping out the rich scent of fresh bakery bread and pastries were a perfect mixture to send Laurien into a dizzyingly good mood. Considering all the issues that were weighing on her mind, it was a welcome change of pace.

New York, though bustling with people and light, was plagued with worsening news from home and overseas. With the Americans and the Soviets at each other's throats and an ever-growing threat of nuclear annihilation, it was difficult to ignore the toll it was taking on everyone.

Through her sunglasses, Laurien could see civilians rushing tirelessly from store to store; buying every non-perishable canned food they could get their hands on, others were arguing profusely about something as frivolous as a parking spot, and headlines on newspapers everywhere reminding them of a sure demise.

President Kennedy's face was warped on the paper in the hand of the newsboy to her right, as he shouted out for all to hear of what they already knew. Laurien knew next to nothing about the man before she left London for America, but after only a few months in the city, she was quite overwhelmed by her new knowledge of all things American.

It was admittedly very exciting to immerse yourself in completely new surroundings, but the reason why she was there put a damper on everything she did. The streets seemed hostile and dangerous, and everyone who passed seemed a threat in her eyes. It had been a depressing first few months in her new home, today had been the first time in a while where she felt her heavy load lifting a bit.

The bakery bread reminded Laurien of home. On fall mornings when she was little, she regularly woke up to the sweet smell of fresh Ontbijtkoek drifting from downstairs where her mother was preparing breakfast. The memory was bittersweet, but Laurien was grateful for the distraction.

She continued along the road, taking a right and a left every now and then. Soon a small colorful building was in sight and upon closer observation Laurien was pleased to behold a cheerful looking bicycle shop. The whole front of the establishment was painted bright red with sunshine yellow trimming on the edges and in the window was a shiny blue bike with black and white striped wheels. It was quite the contrast from the rest of the shops on the street of whom were all painted a terrifyingly dull shade of grey.

Laurien could feel her eyes changing their pigmentation as her mood picked up. When she lifted the sunglasses off of her face, she could notice the unmistakable golden glint as she found her reflection in the shop window. She managed a small smile before she lowered them back down. It soon disappeared when she looked at the rest of herself, her face had grown gaunt and thin over the last couple of months, and it was quite evident now of the effect New York was taking on her.

Laurien's supplies had been dwindling for a while from the unexpected move to the city. She meant to restock but with a lack of money and the lack of groceries at stores because of all the unrest of the nuclear threat, she was reduced to a can of beans, a slice of bread and an apple a day. Even with her unfulfilling job as a secretary at a legal office in the Upper East Side, it was just barely enough to pay for the small apartment she'd managed to find under asking price.

She wasn't complaining though, she had been five at the height of world war two, where food was abysmally scant and people were dying in the streets of hunger. Her family counted themselves lucky that they'd owned a hen to supply them and their neighbors with eggs along with their rations. Laurien still, for the life of her, couldn't eat scrambled eggs since the end of the war.

As she looked closer in the window of the shop, behind the blue bicycle she could see the store owner lowering a bright red tricycle down from the shelf to rest in front of a little rosy-cheeked boy and his ever-fretful mother. The boy's eyes shone at the sight of the bike, which dwarfed him in size, as his small red mouth slowly lifted into a smile that would make any mother's heart melt. Laurien smiled inwardly, the boy reminded her of Bastijn and the mischievous way he grinned, meaning that trouble was definitely to come.

After paying, the mother and the auburn-haired boy wheeled the tricycle out the door when the mother accidentally dropped her bag on the ground. Lipstick, pocketbook, mints and other paraphernalia spilled out onto the sidewalk in a dispersed mess as the woman quickly knelt down to try and minimize the damage. A small movement near Laurien's foot drew her attention down to the Revlon lipstick case that had rolled away from the woman.

Automatically, Laurien picked it off the ground and headed towards the woman who had managed to retrieve the majority of her belongings. She was about to hand it to the lady when she realized that the small boy wasn't with her anymore. Laurien quickly glanced around and soon spotted the child pushing his bike out onto the street, blissfully unaware of the car speeding towards him.

Feeling her eyes flash a bright blue of fear, a cry ripped itself from Laurien's lips as boy entered the direct path of the speedster. She lurched forwards, desperately trying to reach him in time, but as the mother behind her shrieked in horror as the car was nearing the child; she knew what she had to do.

It all seemed to happen in a second; she raised her hand and outstretched it towards the car, the front bumper stopped abruptly before it could hit the boy on the tricycle as if it had hit an invisible wall and flipped forwards into the air. It narrowly missed the boy as it became airborne and cart wheeled violently to the ground on the other side of him, reminding Laurien of a pinwheel during a hurricane as it barreled towards the bicycle shop and, consequentially, Laurien and the mother.

In the split second she had before impact, she pushed the mother out of harm's way with her powers whilst bracing herself for the imminent impact, when instead; an unknown force suddenly jerked her to the side.

She was propelled several feet before she crashed to the ground, hitting her head hard on the pavement as she tumbled. Her sunglasses clattered to the side as Laurien rolled until an outdoor patio table from the café next door finally stopped her. The contents fell in a scattered pattern on the ground as the table tipped over and fell with a clang. It took her a few moments of lying crumpled on the concrete with her ears ringing before Laurien tried to lift up her bruised body. But as she got up, a screaming pain in her left shoulder caused her to intake sharply as she realized that it was dislocated.

Knowing that she didn't have that much time, Laurien gritted her teeth and used her power to pull her arm and set it back into place. She cried out quietly but retrieved her composure quickly as she took in her surroundings. She blinked unseeingly, as everything around her seemed to be continuing in slow motion.

People were running towards the smoking car that had lodged itself in the shattered glass of the bicycle shop that had only a second ago been behind her. Her mind raced at how she had not been hit, the fact that no one but the woman had been beside her perplexed her, even more since she had been using her power to move the woman in the first place.

She looked around and breathed a sigh of relief to see that the lady was already gathering her boy into her arms with nothing more than a scratch or two. Laurien returned her gaze to the bicycle shop in dismay, it was terribly wrecked and the store owner was pulling out his hair in distress at the sight.

Horrible guilt threatened to overwhelm Laurien's conscience, her sloppy meddling had cause this carnage, she could have simply lifted the child out of the way and completely avoided the destruction, but it was painfully known to Laurien that she didn't think well in split second situations.

Cursing herself for her carelessness and stupidity, she was painfully aware of something smarting from the back of her head and lifted her hand up to feel it. The skin was extremely tender and hot as it sent stars dancing in front of her eyes when she touched it, and when she brought her hand back, her thin fingers were dripping with her own blood.

Suddenly the hairs on the back of her neck rose at the sensation of someone watching her. Glancing up, she was discomforted to see her suspicions confirmed as two men were looking attentively at her from across the crowded street.

Between the two of them, the one on the right looked the least threatening, and had an almost, she admitted, pleasant air about him as she made direct eye contact with the man. She studied him closely and the way he raised his hand to his temple slowly, as if she were an easily spooked animal.

Without warning, her mind was invaded with short cuts of pictures that vaguely resembled warped versions of recent memories, the crash, the boy, the shop, and the newspaper with JFK. They quickly shifted to flashes of the further past, as if she was viewing her life in reverse. Sooner than she would have preferred, they reached the painful memories that she would rather have left alone to fade away, London, Bastijn and Roosje, Thunderhill, her parents, the war….

As quickly as they had come, they disappeared to reveal the street once again and the two men, the one on the right now wiping tears from his eyes as the other looked on with concern. Laurien could feel tears of her own rising in her red eyes, but she angrily rubbed them away with her sleeve as she struggled to her feet, blatantly ignoring the shrieking pain throbbing through her body.

She glared at the men, hating them for the sole reason of her not understanding what had just happened. What had he done? Had he been responsible for the unauthorized trip down memory lane? He must have, for there was no way in her right mind that Laurien could or even would voluntarily relive those times.

Her confusion was abruptly interrupted by a small scraping noise to her right, where to before the woman's Revlon lipstick case had fallen from her hand in the commotion, but now the case was spinning round and round in obsessive tiny circles of its own accord on the concrete. It would have been a normal occurrence for Laurien as her powers had been with her as long as she could remember, but the fact that she wasn't the one controlling it sent a jolt of shock through her body.

Feeling panic start to rise in her chest, Laurien quickly glanced up at the men and saw the taller man raise an eyebrow at her in acknowledgement and his eyes flicker towards the lipstick as it swiftly and unexpectedly jumped into her hand.

She stared unseeingly at it for a moment, but it soon came into focus. A compact case with a shiny exterior, not a scratch on it, must have been a recent purchase. Laurien popped the cap and twisted it to reveal the dark red shade, not unlike the color of the blood on her fingers.

In her rapidly fogging state, she came to the realization that it must have been him who yanked her away from the crash. At this, her head throbbed terribly, threatening to rid her of her consciousness at a moment's notice as she attained that she could not deal with all of this right at that time. Feeling emotionally compromised, she desperately wanted to go home, not her foreign shack of an apartment, but the one in Alkmaar, her real home.

Coming to her decision and genuinely wanting nothing to do with any of this overload of confusion, she hurriedly pocketed the case and grabbed her cracked sunglasses from where they were thrown. She placed them precariously back on her face, and with one last look at the two of them, she turned away and fled from the scene.

 **So that was the first chapter of Remembrance, hope you all liked it! Please review!**

 **Ontbijtkoek** \- A Dutch spiced cake.

 **Alkmaar** \- A city in the Netherlands where I had the profound pleasure of visiting last summer.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, I'm super excited to present to you, Chapter Two. DUN DUN DUN. Enjoy!**

Laurien didn't go to the hospital, as a normally sane person would've done in her position. She quickly made her way back to her apartment and slammed the door shut behind her, double-checking that the padlock was secure. She had long since started hyperventilating on her way to the apartment building, her breaths coming in short quick gasps of air as she struggled to find a hold on something to keep her from falling over. It was difficult to think straight as her mind was flinging thoughts and questions around at such a pace that she eventually fell to her knees and threw up into the porcelain toilet in the bathroom of her stiffly small room.

After she was done heaving up her guts until her breakfast made its unwelcome reappearance, Laurien slid down the wall to the floor of the bathroom, tossed her broken glasses to the side and gingerly let her cheek rest against the cool tile. The cold sensation was oddly comforting on her skin and slowed her breathing down considerably, though after a while she realized that her head was still refusing to stop bleeding, but, against her better judgment, she chose to ignore it.

Her head feeling significantly improved since being sick in the toilet, and she began to relax a bit to sort out what had happened. After running the scenario through her mind a few times, the only thing that she could be quite sure of was the fact that she was angry with the two mysterious men. Upon further thought, that might not have been right, as she suddenly realized that she didn't quite know what she felt about them, but anger was as close to a definitive emotion as she could get.

In short, Laurien was angry with the two men for invading her mind and her closely guarded secrets that were hers by right to keep hidden. She didn't know how that mind rubbish went, but she sure as hell knew that he had witnessed what she'd seen in her head. But in the end, Laurien found that she was mostly mad at herself for being such a fool. A fool in what way, she wasn't quite sure, but over the years she never seemed to need a reason for being displeased with herself.

Honestly, all she wanted to do was fall asleep and forget about the men. The whole ordeal was rapidly descending into the area of being surreally creepy. Still, in reflection, they hadn't looked especially menacing, though one of them had looked close to the description, but of course you couldn't just go on looks alone. The most handsomely charming looking man in world could still be a rampaging murderous psychopath if he wanted to.

Laurien was soon hopelessly lost in thought about the pair, as was per usual considering she over thinks in every sense and definition of the word. Another one of her charming traits, she thought bitterly, though she returned to the matter at hand.

The shorter one did have an admittedly pleasant air about him. His light blue eyes sparkled with intelligence and energy, but looked too old in contrast to the rest of his youthful face. She distantly remembered her Oma telling her stories as a small child in Alkmaar, tales of old souls and how one of them had attached itself to Laurien. The thought had terrified her at the time; she'd envisioned a fire breathing demon creature digging its claws into her back and tearing into her soft flesh as her imagination ran away with itself. Her Oma had giggled at her shocked little face and gently explained that it was only a figure of speech. Laurien had never quite fully understood until she had looked into the man's eyes and suddenly discerned her meaning.

The taller man on the other hand, gave the profound impression that he had been carrying something colossally heavy on his mind for a very long time, longer than anyone should for that matter. She assumed it had something to do with the glint of retribution that was ever so present in his steely blue eyes, and the intensity that made her feel uneasy.

It made Laurien wonder of what had given him this effect, but she quickly desisted, for she shouldn't fret over speculated troubles when she would probably never see him or his friend ever again. But then the question suddenly arose, was that really what she hoped for? Truly? They had intrigued her attention immeasurably, confused and even angered her. It had been years since she'd been in known proximity to another individual such as herself; it could be purely educational to seek out this enigmatic pair, she thought, feigning lightness in her mental voice, as if she were unconsciously trying to convince herself of taking on the task. And more importantly, she reasoned, to get some answers to the questions that she had been pondering upon for years.

Little did she know that hours had passed without her noticing with her just lying on the floor, contemplating the pros and cons of the endeavor. Her eyelids had begun to grow heavier with each passing moment and she could feel herself drifting into a dreamless sleep, when there was a sudden knock on the door. Startled, Laurien's leg jerked in surprise and ended up connecting with the bathtub with an echoing thud.

Wincing in pain and mentally cursing whoever was behind the door, she turned her head against the tile and groaned. It must be that zwijn, Jack, from downstairs, coming to bother her again. With the way she was feeling at that moment, she had a right mind to punch him right in the teeth. She'd done it once before for his previous appalling misconduct, she could easily do it again. Laurien lifted herself an inch off the floor, only to find that she couldn't move beyond that height. With her stiff muscles unable to get her up from her awkward position, Laurien finally yelled at the door,

"Go away!"

To her surprise, there was no response.

"Jack, if that's you, you'd better-"

"It's not Jack, Laurel."

She breathed out a sigh of relief at the sound of his voice, it was only Oliver. Oliver was Jack's flat mate, who was superiorly mannered and exceptionally civil when it came to comparing him with the zwijn. In regards to the name he knew her by, it was a haphazard split second answer she came up with when he asked her name on the first day they'd met, and with her embarrassment, she hadn't mustered up the courage to correct him.

"Oh, um, Oliver, this might not be the best time." Laurien managed with her face to the ground, wincing as her voice cracked. "Stront." She swore quietly, now he was for sure going to want to come in, the annoyingly caring soul he is.

"Laurel, are you all right? Your voice sounds very echoed."

Laurien sighed inwardly. This was not the time for a little chat, and the poor man, bless him, could never take a hint. If he came in, he would see her on the ground and call for help, and honestly, that was the last thing she wanted right now. She quickly scanned her mind for a way to get rid of him, finding a mental roadblock at every turn and then-

"Oliver, I'm all right, I'm in the bathroom, it's just-" She hesitated, not believing what she was going to say, considering it was beyond mortifying, but she followed through anyways. Desperate times call for desperate measures. "I am dealing with some feminine issues, and I-"

Oliver quickly interrupted her, panic edging his voice. "Say no more, I, uh, well." There was silence for a moment before the sound of retreating footsteps greeted her ears.

Laurien almost cried out laughing at the realization that it had worked. It was completely absurd, but quite genius if you consider the facts. Good lord, there was nothing that spooked a grown man more than the fertility cycle of a woman.

She rode on her high of disbelief for a few minutes before it slowly began to subside. She was still stuck on the ground of the cramped bathroom, her arm was still throbbing from being dislocated and her head felt akin to a blazing fire, not to mention the heel of her foot from reflexively kicking the bathtub. Laurien genuinely had no wisp of an idea on what to do; the only thing that seemed sensible at that moment was to give in to the alluring darkness of sleep that was beckoning her.

* * *

Her slumber was not devoid of dreams as her last attempt promised; blurry likenesses of bright cars and shiny bicycles appeared on a road in single file all at a monotonous pace while the civilians stood frozen on the sidewalk, most of which were in mid step of their stroll. All of their heads seemed to point in the same direction, and as Laurien turned hers to where they looked, she saw nothing. Nothing, but an outstretch of fresh countryside where two ugly office buildings were supposed to be. The field seemed to go for miles into the horizon, with never ending bliss. Laurien stepped forward onto the street and effortlessly made her way through the bikes and automobiles to where the country laid waiting.

Her bare feet tentatively padded onto the long dew soaked grass, sending a sensation of springtime in the Netherlands through her veins. The sweet scent of fresh uncompromised air filled her lungs and nostrils until Laurien felt she might burst. Exhaling, she continued forward, the tendrils of grass tickled her fingertips as she walked and she soon found herself far away from the city, the buildings now only specks in the distance.

The sun danced a waltz across her skin, the soft rain that followed pirouetted a beautiful ballet. Laurien closed her eyes and let the recital continue as planned, feet planted and face upturned to the sky, she smiled.

As she stood there, she felt the heat of the sun warm her pale skin, but as it continued, it slowly grew hotter and hotter until it was frightfully unbearable. It was scalding her face, her shoulders burning and blistering causing excruciating pain, her heart felt like it would explode as her body was being boiled from the white-hot glare. She was smoldering, catching fire like an insect beneath a magnifying glass, she screamed in agony with her last breath-

* * *

Laurien's eyes flew open to the ceiling of her apartment, chest heaving mightily. She lay there in her bed, panicked blue eyes flitting around frantically as she desperately tried to attain her composure. It was just a dream, it was just a dream, she repeated mentally, trying to convince herself that she was telling the truth, but she knew that it was a lie. No amount of reassurance and hoping was going to change history.

As she finally managed to slow her breathing rate, she quickly realized what she had failed to earlier, how had she gotten into her bed? Laurien stiffened, when she had fallen asleep, she'd been wedged between the bathtub and the toilet on the floor of the bathroom, definitely not in her bed. She had no history of sleepwalking, so that was out, she ruled out her powers as well, she might be able to do a lot of interesting things, but she most certainly could not do anything whilst asleep.

Cautiously, Laurien turned her head an inch and immediately shut her eyes when she glimpsed movement from the bathroom. The sound of footsteps on the old carpet floor sent such a wave of shivers up her spine as they passed the bed that she had to remind herself to breathe. The footsteps moved away from her and, if her hearing was up to par, towards the cabinet on the opposite side of the room.

Taking the risk, she opened her eyes slowly to reveal a brown leather jacketed back as the intruder was facing away from her, as whoever it was picked up the photo of Bastijn and Roosje from off the shelf. She observed him for a moment, taking in his stature and height as her fog addled brain suddenly decided to do what felt best in the immediate situation. Laurien slowly lifted the covers up off her achy body and set them down quietly. She lifted herself off of the bed, setting her stocking feet on the carpeted floor, and, after mustering enough courage, she ran straight for him.

The man turned at the last second before Laurien caught him full on around the middle. He grunted in surprise as the momentum sent them tumbling into the moth-eaten couch and over the other side onto the floor. They collapsed to the ground, but Laurien was saved the full brunt of the force as she fell onto the man's solid stomach. His arm came around and snatched up her wrist, as he attempted to gain the upper hand. Not having any of it, Laurien hit him full on in the face with the punch that had been previously reserved for Jack, and expertly twisted her wrist out of his grasp as blood started to gush out the man's nose.

Ignoring the dizziness that threatened to bowl her over, Laurien struggled to get fully upright, falling heavily on the ground when his foot kicked her legs right out from under her. Her head screamed bloody murder when it accidentally collided with baseboard of the wall, her vision blurred as her fists gripped her hair in agony. Laurien gasped as the pain throbbed through her, feeling as if she might pass out in a moment's notice. She witnessed movement to her right where she had left the man as he slowly got to his feet with some effort and moved towards her.

Feeling an animalistic growl rising in her throat, Laurien waited until he had grasped her upper arm and lifted her up before grabbing his hand, pulling him forward and flipping him over her shoulder. He fell on his back onto the ground, the force of the impact pushing all the air out of his chest. The move seemed to surprise her as much as it did him; she never thought she'd get to use it in real life.

As he was on his back, Laurien finally managed to take the time to see his face in detail, without limbs flying everywhere. At the sight of his face, Laurien stopped dead as recognition dawned on her. It couldn't be possible, she thought, it was the man from the street; surely she must still be dreaming, he couldn't possibly be here, but- the apartment door suddenly opened with a dull thump, causing Laurien to whip her head around to see two bewildered people barge in.

She recognized the man immediately, but the brunette woman was unfamiliar. Nevertheless, they both strode forward into the room, the man's look of alarm almost instantaneously changed to amusement at the sight of his friend on the floor, but the official looking woman only had pure disapproval written across her face as she stared wide eyed at Laurien.

The man stepped forward, smiling broadly as he held out a hand, "Charles Xavier, lovely to meet you, this is Moira McTaggart." He said as he gestured at the still astonished woman, and he then again glanced at the man on the ground, his smile growing wider. He laughed, "And I see you've already met my associate, Erik Lensherr."

 **Well, now we've met Charles, Erik and Moira. Didn't actually mean for them to meet the second time in that exact way, but it just came out. Felt bad for Erik though. :) Hope you all enjoyed, and please review!  
**

 **Oma - Dutch Grandmother**

 **Zwijn - Swine**

 **Stront - Sh*t :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry guys, I meant to post this sooner, but there was a huge power outage around the city and the internet connection was down. No big deal, though. Here it is, hope you all enjoy!**

It was only after the man called Charles helped Erik up from the floor and asked her to sit down that Laurien seemed to fully comprehend what had just happened. The two men that she had seen on the street were now standing in her apartment, acting like it was an ordinary everyday thing that they did, popping unexpectedly into people's lives like that. She couldn't help but feel eerily freaked out at the whole situation, and apparently it showed as the color of her eyes switched to a fragile shade of ice.

"There's no need to be frightened." Charles said gently, as he sat down across from where she'd seated herself tentatively on the edge of the overturned couch. "We mean you no harm, we only wanted to talk with you."

Laurien waited until the woman had left the room to make a phone call before starting to ask her questions. "How did you get in here?" She asked quietly, her eyesight still blurred around the edges from the repercussions of smacking her head again.

Charles glanced over at Erik where he sat on the bed holding his nose with a rapidly reddening cloth, and turned back to her, that sweet little grin still displayed on his kind face. "Erik here has a certain way with metal, meaning that the bolt on your door was of little consequence to us."

"So, you broke in." She prompted flatly, raising an eyebrow.

Charles cleared his throat guiltily. "Well, strictly speaking, I suppose so."

"And you didn't see anything wrong with that, just barging in?"

"We did knock."

Laurien felt a tug on the corners of her mouth as Charles continued.

"In our defense, if we hadn't broken in, you might have been worse off than you are now, you gave us a right scare when we came in to see you passed out on the floor."

Suddenly conscious of her previously forgotten injury, Laurien lifted her hand to the back of her head and felt the unmistakable ripple of broken skin. It smarted and pinched when she touched it, but her eyebrows only furrowed in confusion. How long had she been out? She checked the small watch on her wrist, but quickly abandoned her attempt when she realized that the hands had ceased their movement, miserably broken. She glanced to the fogged up window, only to see a dark and gloomy night as the view stretched over a thundercloud plagued city. Stront, she'd been unconscious for hours.

"Point taken." She sighed.

"It was smart of you, not going to the hospital." A low voice across the room grumbled. Laurien's head snapped up towards where the other man, Erik, had removed the handkerchief from his face to reveal a faintly stained upper lip as the bleed had stopped. His blue eyes seemed to unmistakenly darken as they made contact with hers.

"Sorry?" She inquired.

"The one thing the authorities look for after an accident's occurred involving a mutant and they know that said mutant's injured, they'll look to the nearest hospital and snatch them and ship them off before anyone can question them, like zoo animals in cages. It's much safer to quickly disappear and deal with the injuries in private."

She frowned, and unfortunately she understood very clearly what he meant, but she decided to avoid the upsetting subject altogether and focus on other things. "Mutants? You mean people like us?"

"That is the technical term, yes." Charles explained, rising from his chair to pace the room as he spoke. "Homo superior. Those of us who have what is called the X-Gene, causing variable results of physical or mental mutation, and you, Laurien, are a rare beauty, having one of each."

"Erik's mutation is the skill of metal manipulation, meaning that any metal element can bend to his will. That's how he was able to pull you away from the car, with the metal of your belt buckle."

Laurien automatically glanced down to see that the shiny loop of her belt had a large indent marring the smooth touch of the stainless steel. As she unconsciously pulled the strap to tighten it, a dull twinge blossomed from her stomach. Losing all notice for the two gentlemen in the room, she lifted her maroon shirt from her abdomen to see a thin purple line spreading around her middle.

Laurien couldn't help but stifle a giggle, of all the funny shaped marks she'd accumulated over her lifetime; this one had by far the most interesting story, even better than the Famous Flying Frog Fiasco with Bastijn back in Alkmaar.

At the sight of the bruise, Erik's eyes softened. "Sorry, did I hurt you?"

"Oh, no. It's fine. I've had much worse, believe me." She stated, lowering her shirt back down quickly, blushing as she abruptly realized what she'd done. Her mother would've been ashamed of her, showing her midriff to two strange men she hardly knew, it was simply appalling. The thought of her mother's high-pitched voice lecturing her brought a small smile to Laurien's face, though all too soon, it disappeared.

Charles suddenly spun around towards the other man. "Erik, would you be so kind as to get one of the towels from the bathroom please. I believe it would be best to apply some pressure to Laurien's head wound before patching her up." He then spun back to her. "Are you all right with that?"

She gave a small nod, and Erik immediately disappeared into the bathroom, as Charles continued his lecture.

"Your own power, you see has a mental and a physical aspect. Your physical allows you to display your emotion through the changing pigmentation of you eyes. What I could only specify as being called emotionally-manipulated discoloration of the iris."

"Exceptional." Erik murmured to her left as he returned with the towel. Laurien could feel her cheeks reddening from the comment but she managed to keep her face serious with much difficulty. "Are you all right?" He asked, referring to her head. She moved her head in another nod, not feeling much up for talking anymore, though instantly regretting it as her head was engulfed in an agonizing throb at the movement.

He gently placed the towel over the cut and held his other hand against Laurien's forehead in an effort to apply pressure. His skin felt cool against her own, and oddly relaxing, giving off the same effect that the tile flooring in the bathroom had done for her earlier. Suddenly feeling self conscious of her every move, she tried to distract herself from the close proximity of the man next to her with Charles' continuing explanation.

"The mental component being your telekinesis, moving things about with your mind, as it was. Very handy should you forget to grab something from upstairs or you want to simultaneously finish all your household chores in a jiffy. But you can do so much more than that, you know? If you continue to strengthen your bond with your powers and harness your concentration, you might soon find that you can do things that you could only imagine."

"You see, Laurien." He said, voice steady with confidence as he sat back down across from her. "That is what we are trying to accomplish, we've been traveling across the country, Erik and I, searching for mutants just like you, with powers that have so much potential. Our goal is for you to reach your highest potential with help from our tutelage, so you can use and control your powers safely and responsibly in a secure and nurturing environment."

As he finished speaking, Laurien couldn't help feeling a bit skeptical of the whole deal, it sounded to good to be true. In the back of her head, she knew the possibility of it being a trap, some distorted trick, sending two mutants to lure in others of their own kind for the benefit of the government's sick experiments.

"How do I know that I can trust you, truly?" She inquired cautiously, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

"You can't." Erik's low grumble of a voice made her jump as she had forgotten that he was there, despite the pressure of his hands bracing her head. "You'll just have to trust your gut, or take a leap of faith if you prefer."

Charles gave his companion a quick glance of something Laurien couldn't quite make out before leaning towards her, his smile disappearing and his eyes suddenly becoming serious. "I have seen your past, Laurien. I have seen and felt the pain and suffering that you've endured over the years: First the fire and your parents, then your siblings, Roosje and Bastijn. I know how you felt about leaving them."

Laurien stiffened at the mention of Roosje and Bastijn, the hot sensation of anger rising in her chest as her eyes flashed red, causing her words to blurt out in a stiff growl. "And who gave you permission to go messing around inside my head, huh? That was some move you pulled there on the street. I might not know much about your powers but I sure as hell know that they were my memories, my secrets, and you had no right to see any of them without my consent."

Charles looked down at his hands, frowning. "Yes, I do apologize. That was misguided of me, I meant nothing by it, it's just that," He sighed, his face turning unexpectedly dark. "I have hardly ever met anyone with that much agony in their head before, my powers just latched on, I couldn't stop-" His voice broke and faded away, and at the same time Laurien felt her anger rapidly do the same.

She kept her rapidly changing eyes stationed on him, suddenly feeling terrible for lashing out at him. She wondered if she should say something reassuring or crack a joke, but then she quickly remembered that she had a terrible sense of humor and so, consequentially, she kept her mouth shut. She could see Erik shifting beside her out of the corner of her eye as Charles ran a hand through his hair. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, he finally gazed back up at her with grief filled eyes, and Laurien found, to her surprise, that she couldn't look away.

"I know you have no reason to trust us in any way, I know that. But I believe that if you come with us and meet the others, you will find what you have been searching for all these years. It may not make up for your loss, but please believe me that we only want to help you."

Narrowing her eyes, she considered this. There was nothing for her in New York; she'd known it from the moment she set foot in the city. She knew no one besides Oliver and the zwijn downstairs, and she was utterly unhappy. She was tired of feeling like an outsider everywhere she went, tired of looking over her shoulder as she walked down the street, she just felt so God damned exhausted all the time. Given these reasons, there seemed no other option but the one that was laid out before her.

At that note, she took a deep breath and turned towards Erik, fierce determination sparking in her shifting eyes as she stared into his own unflinchingly. "A leap of faith, you say?"

He raised a questioning eyebrow before it dawned on him and his face cleared of all confusion into one of approval. Laurien turned to Charles, feeling her conviction grow as she said the words that set off the chain reaction that would change her life forever.

"I'm in."

 **Shorter chapter this time, but I promise that there is more to come! Hope you all enjoyed, please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys, ImaginaryArtist17 here, I would like to thank you all for your continuing support! Believe me, it means the world to me. Now, I present to you a new chapter, hope you all enjoy!**

"Come on, what can you do Laurien?" Raven called from across the coffee table.

Laurien smiled from behind her glass of Coke as the eyes of the other mutants in the room turned in her direction. The past few days had been a rollercoaster of nerves and anxiousness, but now that she was there with all the other people like herself, she felt oddly at home. They all seemed nice enough, with the minor exception of Alex Summers who looked her up and down with his eyes when they first met and promptly gave her an eight out of ten.

After they all introduced themselves, Charles and Erik left them to their own devices with the promise that they would be back in an hour or two. The room that they were sitting in seemed to be especially made up for the young mutants, with a mini bar harboring more soft drinks than Laurien knew existed, a pinball machine and what Charles had called a 'groovy' set up of chairs.

The conversation was shy at first, as no one but Raven and Hank seemed to previously know one another, but as the night continued, the discussion topic changed from small weather talk to debates on what they could do and what they should call themselves for code names as they were all, as Raven stated, government agents now.

Darwin, Angel, Mystique and Banshee were all named, and it was still up for discussion for what Hank would be called, as he didn't seem too enthusiastic at Alex's suggestion of Bigfoot, but Laurien and Alex were still yet to be titled.

"She's like a sexy poltergeist." Sean, or rather, Banshee chuckled, but soon stopped as a pillow threw itself at him of its own accord, smacking him right in the face.

The rest of the room laughed aloud as Sean tossed it back at her teasingly.

"Why don't we call you that?" Raven suggested.

"The Sexy Poltergeist?" Laurien questioned, scrunching up her nose as the group kept giggling.

"No, just Poltergeist."

"It's not very far from Banshee though." She appealed.

"I don't mind having a partner in the afterlife." Sean drawled, as he pulled on the bubblegum in his mouth in long strands. "We can haunt mansions together."

"I think it fits." Darwin chimed in beside her.

She thought about it for a moment, realizing that she hadn't had this much fun with others her age in a long time as they all looked intently for her decision, and then replied, "I like it. What about you Alex, what's your gift?"

He shook his head, "It's not- I can't do it in here."

"Can you do it out there?" Darwin inquired, and they all started chanting his name louder and louder until he gave in with a gruff sigh and made his way out of the room by the shattered window from where Sean had displayed his powers earlier. Excitedly, they all rushed to the where he had disappeared and peered around the opening to look at him.

"Get back!" He yelled.

They obeyed, disappearing back into the room, but then stubbornly stuck their heads out again.

"Get back!" He repeated, but when they didn't budge, he let out an exasperated sigh and turned back towards the clearing. Suddenly, bright red rings spun out from his body like fiery hula hoops, shooting out and slicing diagonally through the metal that was the statue of some random guy, the top half of the body falling with a dull clatter to the grass.

They all cheered loudly as Alex stepped back into the room, his pale cheeks reddening from the praise. After the clamor of noise calmed down a bit, Raven's face lit up in a grin as a genius thought dawned on her.

"Havok!" She exclaimed, drawing all of their attention to her in surprise at her outburst.

"Sorry?" Laurien asked, voicing what they were all thinking.

"That's what we should call him! Havok!" She explained, and with a few seconds of deliberation, the others joined in her excitement.

Angel turned to grab her drink and raised it high in a toast. "To us, the mutants!" They all lifted their glasses in turn, Sean perhaps a little too enthusiastically from his seat as his Coke spilled from his glass onto the floor, leaving a terribly visible stain on the white carpet.

"Aw, shit. My bad." He mumbled, as the others giggled at the prospect of how much Moira was going to lecture him later. Not wasting a moment, Laurien set down her drink on the side table and moseyed over to the site of the spill.

"Here, Sean, get out of your chair for a moment, please."

He complied, moving away as Laurien focused her concentration on the fine black leather armchair before it soon lifted into the air by itself and set back down right over the area of the spill as if nothing was there at all. Sean breathed a sigh of relief before suddenly picking her up in his arms and spinning her around the room.

Laurien let out a gasp of surprise as the room spun before her eyes in a fantastically dizzying fashion, every now and then the others came into view and quickly disappeared as she went round and round to the sound of joyfully childish laughter. Sean soon set her down before going to join Alex on the other side of the room as he tested Darwin's skill of adapting. As she tumbled to the couch in her wobbly state, she could see them whacking at his rock solid form with the legs of one of the chairs from the back of the room.

"Hank, show Angel and Laurien what you can do." Raven said playfully. Hank nodded shyly at her command, though hurriedly took his shoes and socks off, to reveal feet that looked more similar to those of a chimp than a human. Bracing himself, he then leapt into the air at an impressive height and latched on to the overhanging lights with his feet.

"That's incredible, Hank!" Laurien gasped, mouth wide open in amazement, and looked to her left to see that Angel was doing the same. Hank grinned a bashful upside-down smile before Raven declared that they needed music immediately. Without missing a beat, Laurien flicked her wrist at the record player, lowering the needle onto the disc and before long; an upbeat tune erupted from the speaker.

Raven suddenly grabbed her hand and dragged her willingly up onto the couch to dance as Angel spread her wings and hovered next to them. In all her life, Laurien had never been to a party such as this, where people were just so blissfully carefree and unaware of the dangers of the outside world looming towards them. It made her feel strange, she was almost always on her guard, as she had been her whole life, but to let go for even a little while felt foreign to her.

As she stood on that couch, she realized that none of the people in that room had ever dealt with something that could destroy them from the inside out. It genuinely scared Laurien to think of sometime in the near future where they would never feel this whole, this safe, for the rest of their lives. It brought down her mood to the point of her eyes turning from a bright gold, to a dark grey in a matter of seconds, and Raven seemed to notice.

"Are you all right, Laurien?"

Laurien snapped out of her troubled reverie to see Raven's concerned good-natured face, framed with a glowing halo of perfect golden blonde hair, looking at her. God, she was envious of that hair, her own wavy caramel locks could never reach the same amount of volume and flare as hers.

"Yeah," She said, feeling herself smile, as Raven had that effect on people. "I'm fine, I just must be still feeling a little bit dizzy from earlier."

"Hey, I didn't realize your eyes did that before now." She exclaimed. "How do you do it?"

Laurien opened her mouth to answer before she was interrupted by a loud shrill voice from behind her.

"What are you doing?"

She spun around to see that the source of the voice was a disapproving looking Moira behind the remains of the broken window, with Charles and Erik standing behind her. Alex, Darwin and Sean abruptly stopped their experiment as Hank jumped down from his perch on the lights to face her, the mutants all staring at the three adults like children who'd been caught by their parents.

"Who destroyed the statue?" Moira demanded, furiously.

"It was Alex." Hank replied in a small voice, as Alex looked around at him accusingly.

"No. Havok." Raven announced stepping off the couch. "We have to call him Havok from now on. And I was thinking," She pointed at Charles. "You should be Professor X, and you," She turned to Erik. "Should be Magneto."

Her pick was met with silence from the two, until Erik muttered a barely audible "Exceptional" that brought Laurien back to a few days ago back in her apartment when he had uttered the same thing to her. Moira rolled her eyes in exasperation before turning to leave.

Charles stayed for another moment, looking at all of them in discontent before saying the five words that seemed to crush the party into smithereens. "I expected more from you."

Laurien saw Raven's face fall as Charles left, leaving them in an uncomfortable silence. Unable to figure out what to do next, as their vivacious festivity was slowly being diminished into a guilty memory, they all decided to leave the messy lounge to go to their rooms for the night.

As they walked down the hallways to their rooms that were all side by side, Laurien could feel the disappointment radiating off of Raven in waves. She felt the need to let her know that it was all right, but she didn't know for the life of her how to go about it, as she had always had issues with the whole social aspect. When the group started to break off to their respective rooms, it was eventually only Raven and Laurien left in the hallway.

"Well, Goodnight." Raven murmured, as cheerfully as she could, but Laurien could instantly tell that she was failing.

Almost out of nowhere, a bout of courage swept over her and she replied, "You know, Raven, I don't care what Moira and Charles said, that was the most fun that I've had in a long time, and it meant a lot to me, so thank you for that."

Raven's face immediately broke out in an elated smile and she surprised Laurien when she threw her arms around her in a tight hug. Still shocked by the sudden act of affection, Laurien patted her back awkwardly in what she hoped was an acceptable response, before Raven let go of her, still smiling.

"Charles can be a little bit of a stick in the mud sometimes, but believe me when I tell you that we will be having many more times like that." She stated hopefully. "It's only going to get better now that we're all together."

Laurien grinned at the prospect. "Goodnight." She called, as Raven disappeared into her room with a small wink.

Laurien turned to her door and as she opened it, she was met with a waft of freezing cold air on her sweaty face as she realized that she had left the air conditioning on while she was away. Despite the comforting warmth of summer, Laurien always found that she always enjoyed the winter months better, as she could have an excuse to snuggle up and read a book instead of go outside. One of the things she hated most was not being able to fall asleep due to the hot weather, so consequentially, she always preferred her rooms cold.

Feeling exhausted from the day's shenanigans, she headed for the bathroom to wash up before bed. After splashing water on her face and drying herself off with a towel, something in her reflection in the mirror made her stop. Laurien brought her face up close to the mirror, inspecting every little bit, as she wasn't quite sure what had caught her eye.

She had an angular face, arched eyebrows and faint freckles that were scattered across her small nose and high pale cheekbones that she'd inherited from her mother. As she took her hair out of it's bun, the long wavy caramel locks framed her face adequately, but not spectacularly as it fell to the small of her back. Her eyes were large and inquisitive, but always seemed to give her feelings away when she least wanted them to.

"Een groot open boek." She mumbled to herself bitterly as she continued searching.

Her chin stuck out more than it should, but that was a usual occurrence as her father had the same chin. "You win some you lose some" he used to always say. Her top lip curved a soft cupid's bow as the bottom one was dented from Laurien biting it too much in her moments of anxiousness. She had basically chewed her lip raw in the days leading up to her meeting the other mutants, she was so nervous.

She couldn't seem to figure out what had caught her eye earlier, so she decided to give up on the mystery and finished up her nighttime ritual before snuggling up in the nice bed the CIA had given her. It was interesting to remember that only a week ago, one mention of the CIA or the government would've sent her packing to a new state, but now she was under their protection and feeling safer than she had been in years.

As she turned off the lights and got comfortable in her bed, she found that the fact that she was starting to trust these people, Charles, Erik and Raven, scared her to her core, more than any ghost story could. She hadn't come anywhere near that with anyone in a decade, and with good reason. She recognized that her leap of faith had been a resounding success, but still, the nagging question still haunted her. How long would it last?

 **Dun Dun Dun, hope you all enjoyed, please review!**

 **Een groot open boek - dutch for "A big open book"**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey, ImaginaryArtist17 here. This is a longer chapter for you all, it was originally much longer, but I decided to split it up into two chapters so to preserve my sanity. Hope you enjoy!**

Waking with a small start from the noise of the alarm clock, it took Laurien a few moments to remember where she was before she quickly recalled, hit the snooze blindly and rolled over, pushing her face deep into the blissfully fluffy pillow. After debating whether she could muster another five minutes, she promptly gave up and pushed her feet out towards the edge of the mattress, feeling her ankles crack loudly as she pointed her toes forwards like a prima ballerina.

For Laurien, one of the best feelings in the world was stretching out your body after a good long night's rest. The intake of breath as your muscles contract and pull, leaving you with a soft and satisfying burning sensation to warm your core. It was a cherished perk of everyday life that was almost up there with hot peppermint tea on a winter's day, which nothing could ever top.

Feeling ready to at least make an attempt of getting up, Laurien kicked the covers off her body, and with a big sigh, she gingerly placed her feet on the floor and heaved herself up off the bed and towards the bathroom.

She cringed when her bare skin treaded on the freezing tile when she scooped up her brush from the counter, making her wonder how the penguins did it in the Antarctic as she hurried back to the safety of the carpet in the main room. With the clock telling her that it was a quarter to ten, she thought that the others must be already in the lounge eating breakfast as they were told, though after hurriedly choosing an acceptable skirt and a dark blue long sleeve and walking briskly towards the lounge, she was greeted by a lone sleepy figure at the table.

A plaid pajama wearing Sean had visibly only just woken up as she had, but didn't seem to be dealing with it as well. His eyes were drooping, his pink mouth was sagging with drool, and it seemed that the only reason his head was up was because his hand was propping it. He didn't seem to notice her, as she stood dead silent in the doorway observing him, he seemed to only have enough concentration to manage a repetitive motion of spooning cereal into his gaping mouth.

"Not a morning person I see." A voice chuckled from beside her, and as she turned her head, she was pleased to see Darwin and Angel come to join her in her observation of the mysterious Banshee. They all bid each other good morning before the three of them continued into the room without so much as an acknowledging blink from Sean.

Alex came soon after they had sat down, immediately grabbing up the toast rack and administering a generous amount of peanut butter before moving over to the couch to eat his breakfast alone. Laurien had then wondered about him, why would a disgruntled young man find himself liking solitary confinement more than the company of others? She'd heard about his run ins with the law last night as they all shared, but she still found herself deliberating the reason why he'd want to be alone.

After a short time of deliberation, the answer seemed so ever clear to her that she was ashamed that she hadn't recognized it sooner, she had prided herself on being able to read people. It was the silence, she thought. With no other sounds or voices added to the melee, it was the silence that allowed one to find some proper solace with oneself. Laurien knew well of times where the conflicted voice in her head would grow so loud that she felt she might explode with the pressure it put on her brain, so the solitude and the silence that came with it was almost a gift.

Or, of course it could be that she was blatantly over thinking it and the reason he preferred it might be because he hated people overall, which Laurien also found was oddly understandable from her experience out in the world. Good lord, she thought, Roosje was right, she was cynical.

The arrival of Hank and Raven broke her train of thought as they came bearing news of the whereabouts of Charles and Erik, who Laurien had just realized should have already been there.

"They what?" Alex demanded from his spot on the couch.

"They left yesterday for Russia." Hank replied coyly, avoiding eye contact with the intimidating other boy.

"Right after breaking up the party, the kill joys." Raven mumbled bitterly into her cereal.

Laurien couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the sudden actions of their mentor mutants, leaving them alone in a base full of prejudice CIA agents right after bringing them all there. What were they supposed to do while they waited for them to come back from who knows what?

"Do you know what they left to Russia for? Didn't Charles tell you anything before he left?" She inquired from Raven.

The blond shook her head, "Nope. Not a word."

They all sat without saying anything for the longest of times, the only sound to greet their ears was the grinding and crunching of them eating their breakfast. The mood was exceptionally distant from the outrageous fun they'd had the night previous, everyone displaying their powers to others like them without fear, feeling admittedly free for the first time in their lives.

Laurien suddenly felt a cool draft come over them and glanced around for the source, only to find that the window that Banshee had broken yesterday had still not been replaced, with many a CIA agent walking by it in confusion.

"You know what?" Alex called, getting up from the couch to wander over to the table with the unmistakable glint of rebellion in his eyes. "I'm tired of being cooped up in our part of the base, let's go out and explore this place."

Laurien's eyes glanced up at him, taken aback, before turning to meet Hank's horrified gaze. She had to bite her lip to keep herself from smiling at his expression that made it seem as if the idea was the damning piece of evidence that determined him guilty in a murder trial. The others seemed a little spooked at the suggestion as well, and Laurien couldn't blame them, they were safe in their quarters, the lounge and their hallway, none of them had even considered going out and around the CIA base.

Darwin, thankfully, voiced their concerns. "Are we allowed to do that?"

"The Prof said nothing against it." Alex smirked.

It was quiet as they all deliberated the idea, and as Laurien looked around the table, it seemed as if they were all at different stages of if they wanted to do it.

"I'm in." Angel added, shrugging her leather clad shoulders. "Don't mind stretching my legs for a little bit."

Darwin nodded, and Alex's chest seemed to swell by the second as everyone gave his or her consent, although Hank gave his a tad apprehensively.

Alex seemed to notice. "Don't worry, Bigfoot. No one will beat you up when you're with the cool kids."

Hank kept his eyes fixed on his feet in embarrassment as Raven scowled at Alex with a look that Laurien made a quick mental note to never be on the receiving end of.

"What about Sean?" Laurien asked giggling as the others got to their feet. "He doesn't seem to be fully awake yet."

It was true; during their conversation Sean had been still shoveling his cereal slowly into his mouth like a zombie, oblivious to the fact that he had finished his bowl over five minutes ago. Alex sighed impatiently and swept the hand that was propping Sean's head up out from under him, causing his head to fall forwards and hit the table.

With a start, Sean lifted his head with a small groan. "I'm coming, Mom."

Laurien raised an eyebrow before getting up out of her seat and following the others through the hallway, with a sleepy Sean trailing behind her. He stumbled every now and then but Laurien made sure to not let him run into any walls. Alex led the way towards the double doors that opened up to the main atrium of the building, a large high ceiling room with walkways and stairs leading in all directions.

Government agents passed by them without so much as a glance of acknowledgment as they hustled for their next important meeting. The professional looking women that were manning the phones at the front desk reminded Laurien of her of her recent days as a secretary at the legal office back in New York, grimacing at the reminder of how much she'd hated that job.

Alex then corralled them up one of the many stairways that led to some claustrophobically tiny rooms that were made even more cramped by the addition of two wobbly chairs and an ugly desk. Without anything interesting to see, they continued on to a tight hallway that led to many larger areas set up for meetings with a long polished wood table and many nicer chairs that pivoted smoothly around in circles when Sean tried it out.

They all eventually took a seat around the massive table in one of the many rooms with Alex at the end, looking high and mighty in his place of pretended authority.

"What do you mean that there's no more pudding in the cafeteria?" He demanded in a loud gruff voice to the laughs of the others as he imitated the older CIA agent that had coldly greeted them upon their arrival. "I must have my vanilla pudding at noon or else the safety of the world is at stake!"

He continued ranting on about pudding to the others as Raven swiveled her chair around to face Laurien who was seated beside her. "I forgot to ask yesterday, but I can tell from your accent that you're not originally from here."

"Yes, I was born in the town of Alkmaar in the Netherlands." She responded, wincing as she heard her voice break during the name of her home.

Raven didn't seem to notice, or if she did, she chose to overlook it for Laurien's sake. "Where did you learn to speak English?"

"We were taught a bit in school, but I learned most of it when I lived in London for a couple of years."

At the mention of London, Raven's eyes lit up. "No way, you lived in London? How was it? I've always wanted to go. Charles' family is from there, but we've never gone."

Laurien found herself smiling at Raven's enthusiasm, she reminded her of someone she once knew, but she couldn't for the life of her put her finger on who it was. She opened her mouth to reply when a booming voice startled her.

"What do you think you are doing in here?"

She spun around sharply in her chair to see three male government agents in the doorway staring daggers at them. The one who the voice belonged to was wearing an expensive dark blue suit that made him look very important compared to the others, his face was screwed up in annoyance which quickly changed to mean spirited amusement as he took in all the kids in front of him.

"You're the so called mutants, aren't you?" He sneered at them, a mean glint so obvious in his eyes. He then turned to the men beside him, "They're the freaks that the guy at the head of the circus recruited for his team of misfits. Look at this guy." He pointed at Hank, who seemed to shrink into his seat a bit. "He's got feet like a damned monkey. Come on freak, show us."

Laurien stiffened at his words. Even if it wasn't her he was making fun of, she knew very well that if you humiliated one mutant, you humiliated them all. She got to her feet, anger rising in her chest as she stared the man directly in his face. "Leave him alone, you eigenwijze klootzak."

The man frowned, his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion. "What did you call me, freak?"

"She called you a pig-headed bastard, which is exactly what you are." Raven said, standing up next to her.

"Yeah," Alex voiced from the end of the table. "Nobody makes fun of Bigfoot, except me."

To her amusement, the man looked taken aback at their boldness, and spluttered out his angry words. "Get out, all of you now!"

The rest of them stood up, Alex bumping him with his shoulder as they left, making him spill his coffee on his expensive suit. They heard his cry of anger from inside the room as they hastily made their way back down the hallway from whence they came.

"I didn't know that you spoke Dutch." Laurien prompted, as she fell into line next to Raven.

She blushed. "I don't actually, one of the cleaning ladies at home who was Dutch swore a lot when she thought we weren't around, so I picked up on a few choice words."

Laurien giggled with her, as they returned into the atrium. "I can't seem to swear in English." She admitted. "The words just feel strange and unnatural on my tongue, and I can't get them to come out in the heat of the moment, you know? I keep accidentally reverting back to Dutch and confusing whoever I'm arguing with."

Their conversation abruptly faded away as they walked across the big room, all of them suddenly noticing all the stares they received from passers by.

Laurien would glance to left and see the ladies at the phones that she'd passed by earlier, she could feel them staring at her with unabashed eyes, searching her up and down for any oddity or abnormality they could find. Feeling self conscious, she quickly crossed her arms over her chest and hurried after the others as they headed back to their quarters.

"Why are we heading back so quickly?" Angel asked from behind her.

"I've had enough of this place already." Alex responded stiffly, leaving it at that. They all took the hint and continued on in silence. Once they passed back through the double doors, Hank disappeared immediately into his room without so much as a word to the rest of them. Laurien followed suite as the others did the same, and as she opened the door to enter her room, she realized that she was not alone in the hallway.

She turned her head to find a very eager looking Raven and Angel waiting patiently behind her.

"Hello."

"Hello." They said back, their little grins still plastered on their faces.

Wondering desperately if she'd forgotten something important, Laurien searched her mind for something in Raven's face to give her a clue, but alas, she didn't find anything.

"Would you like to come in?" She asked tentatively.

They nodded quickly, scooting past her into the room as Laurien stared after them, utterly bewildered. She found that she didn't quite know what to do in this situation, of all the multitudes of scenarios she had run and rerun through her mind late at night, this was never something she had thought would be a problem.

Raven and Angel swiftly made themselves at home by leaping backwards onto her still freshly made bed as Laurien closed the door behind them, her freckled face still looking beyond puzzled.

Raven giggled as she gazed at her face. "You haven't had much contact with people before coming here, have you?"

Laurien blushed. "Is it that obvious?"

"Well, yes." Angel replied plainly.

She sighed deeply, feeling her heart beating loudly against her chest as she reminded herself to be careful of what she said. "I didn't make it my prime directive to search out for friends after I moved to New York."

"And why's that?" Raven inquired, her fingers playing with the fringe of the covers as she gazed up at Laurien intently.

"Didn't feel the need to, thought I was going to move again sooner or later, so there was no point in getting attached."

"Why did you leave London anyways?" Angel wondered, rolling over onto her back to look at the ceiling. "I wouldn't trade London for anything."

Stront, she mentally cursed, did people usually ask this many questions? She tried thinking up a quick white lie to divert her, but upon looking into Raven's kind face, she found herself resisting the urge to lie. Of all the people she'd met, she suddenly realized that Raven was the one she trusted the most, and she desperately didn't want to be dishonest with her.

With Angel on the other hand, she wasn't quite sure. She couldn't help but feel a nagging sensation in her gut that told her to be wary of the girl, and so far her gut had been right about other things. But honestly, she still had yet to get to know many of these people, and she sure as hell couldn't allow herself to judge them before she knew them.

Swallowing her constant fear, she replied weakly. "I got into a little bit of trouble."

Raven sat up abruptly at the mention of the word, looking concerned, but visibly excited. "What kind of trouble?"

Laurien could feel her heart racing faster and saw her vision flash blue as she realized the path they were headed down with the conversation and tried her utmost to stop it in its tracks. "Look, it's a long dull story, and I've been feeling so much better since I've arrived here that I honestly don't want to-"

Raven interrupted her, putting a calming hand on Laurien's arm to halt her rambling. "It's all right, you don't have to tell me anything if you're not comfortable with it." She smiled understandingly, reminding Laurien even more of whoever it was that she couldn't quite remember.

"Thanks." She let out a deep breath, feeling herself relaxing bit by bit as her eyesight returned to normal.

"You're eyes are amazing." Angel gushed, changing the subject. "Have you had them your whole life?"

"My eyes, yes, I was born with them." She joked, but it went right over their heads, as did most of her attempts at jokes, so she hastily continued. "The color changing aspects, no. They arrived around the time when I was turning nine or ten. That was consequentially when I started to adopt sunglasses as part of my everyday outfit."

"Must have been hard to hide it without them."

"Well, yes I suppose so. My parents were quite all right with them actually. They could never complain about me not expressing my emotions enough. But then I soon realized the fact that it was difficult to hide my feelings when they just seemed to be broadcasted out there without my permission. My siblings could always tell when they were annoying me with their antics."

"I remember complaining to my father one night about being an open book." She sighed, her heart aching. "He merely shrugged and told me that some books were harder to read than others. He said that most people can be read like a newspaper by less observant folks, but if I worked hard enough, I would become a Dickens."

They both frowned, but Laurien quickly explained. "He meant that only specific people can read a Dickens novel and appreciate it for what it is. So, I needed to become as hard to read as A Tale of Two Cities or Great Expectations and only those who are worthy can truly read me. And I guess I still need to work on it a bit." She said, her cheeks blushing as she suddenly realized the caliber of the memory she had just shared with the two of them.

"Did you ever read them, the books?" Raven asked.

"Ironically, no. I didn't." Laurien laughed, finding to her surprise that she was enjoying herself. See, she thought, it wasn't so bad opening up to people after all.

 **This is where I thought to end it, hope it wasn't too abrupt. I'm hoping that you can all give me some constructive criticism so I can make this better for all of you. I have big plans for this story that I can't wait to show you. So please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**This is the original second half of the other chapter that I decided to split up into two. Enjoy!**

The three girls talked on about various things from books to celebrities for what only felt like a couple of minutes in Laurien's head, but when they were interrupted by a knock on the door, Hank informed them that it was time for dinner.

"What the hell?" Raven exclaimed when she glanced at the clock to see that it was half past five. "We missed lunch!"

"Well, I didn't." Hank stated simply.

"Why didn't you come find us?" Laurien asked incredulously, suddenly feeling grumpy as her stomach ached sharply with hunger from the reminder.

"I just assumed that you all fell back asleep, considering that was what Sean did." Hank explained as he led them out of Laurien's room, and indeed, as they passed Sean's room, he was passed out with half of his body slumped off the bed in an awkward position that Laurien thought was impossible to ever consider the least bit comfortable.

Dinner passed without much to take away from it, everyone seemed a little sedated as they ate the spaghetti that was brought for them by a mousy little woman who scurried away at the earliest convenience. Laurien assumed that everyone was still feeling the effects of their run in with the snooty CIA agent that morning, which she had honestly almost forgotten about completely, but she could understand how it might have rattled the others. Eventually, the mood rose when Sean joined them, newly risen from his bizarre slumber, and two minutes into his dinner, ended up with spaghetti coming out his nose from a spiritedly misplaced snort.

Laurien almost threw up then and there, she didn't know what it was about the nose and its functions, but it always seemed to make her want to gag. Even growing up with her siblings, whenever they had a snotty sneeze or had a runny nose, Laurien would always make herself scarce from the fear of retching. She could see blood and gore, amputations and lacerations, but the smallest bit of snot, and she was gone.

After dinner and after Sean cleaned himself up, they retired to the 'groovy' couches on the other side of the lounge, next to a newly replaced window. They drank their drinks in silence as the only sound their ears were greeted to were the ringing of bells from where Alex was beating Darwin's score mercilessly on the bright pinball machine.

"Come on, man. You're killing me." Darwin groaned from beside the game, his eyes every now and then glancing worriedly at the rising numbers on the board.

"Don't beat yourself up, I've had a lot of free time." Alex replied, smirking as he gained another jackpot that multiplied his score.

Laurien took another sip from her drink as she watched the game from her seat, but her concentration was diverted by a nudge from Raven as she motioned towards the window, where the man from earlier in the meeting room had just appeared with a nervous younger colleague.

"Well, look. The circus is in town. Hey, darlin', do your little," He flapped his arms in an offensive imitation of Angel's wings as his companion watched on with an ashamed look on his face.

"Hey, what about you, Bigfoot?" He said as Hank got to his feet and moved towards the window. "Show us the feet, man. Come on."

Hank hit the button with a small wave to the zwijn as the curtains flew forwards and hid them from view.

As Hank returned to his seat, Angel slammed her cup down angrily on the coffee table between them all, her eyes filling with tears.

"They're just guys being stupid." Raven reasoned in an effort to console her.

"Guys being stupid I can handle, okay, I've handled that my whole life. But I'd rather the way some guys stare at me with my clothes off than the way these ones stare at me."

Laurien glanced down at her shoes, feeling her frustration upsetting her stomach, as she felt helpless to say anything useful to help the situation, but thankfully, Raven said it for her. "At us."

Laurien took another sip from her Coke when she realized that it wasn't just the pinball machine that she could hear now, a faint slamming noise in the distance peaked her interest. She set her glass down carefully, hearing the noises getting louder and louder with each passing second, as she slowly got to her feet.

"Do you guys hear that?" She asked, her question being answered wordlessly as the others looked around for the source of the noise.

"I don't know what it is, but I don't have a good feeling about this." Darwin stated as he and Alex abandoned their game to join the rest of them who had congregated at the covered window.

Hank clicked the button that pulled the curtains back, but all they could see was the dark courtyard, looking just the same as earlier. The sounds continued, and with every syllable Laurien felt further on edge, her heart pumping hard as her eyes searched for anything out of place. She almost jumped out of her skin when she felt Raven's hand clasp her wrist tightly, fear radiating off of her in big waves.

Suddenly, a flash of black fell from above, hitting the pavement with an explosion of red paint. Raven screamed as they backed away from whatever it was, Laurien was able to spot the unmistakable features of the CIA agent who was heading Division X, and quickly realized that it wasn't paint that had splattered the window.

More bodies started to fall after the first, all seemingly CIA agents, slapping the ground with bone crunching thuds, as the mutants inside the lounge watched the scene unfold in horror.

Refusing to feel helpless, Laurien lunged towards the window with a reckless idea popping into her head, but was yanked back by Raven's surprisingly strong grip around her wrist. "Let go, I can stop them before they hit the ground!" She pleaded desperately, but after another glance at the courtyard, she saw that the bodies had stopped falling and spotted the reason that Raven had pulled her back, the ominous figure that she hadn't noticed who stood unmoving under the shadow of the building before stepping forward into the light, making Laurien gasp.

With skin as red as the devil, the man's piercing yellow eyes gazed at them with a toothy grin that sent chills racing down her spine. A pointed tail whipped out from behind his body that was hunched over in a predatory stance, as he seemed to feel their fear from afar, but just as quickly as he had appeared, he suddenly vanished in a puff of vapory black smoke.

Shocked by what she'd just witnessed and wondering if she'd just imagined it, she felt a sudden wave of relief when she saw multiple CIA agents charge into the courtyard with guns cocked and ready in their hands.

"Stay back!" One of them yelled to the mutants. "We're under attack!"

Her relief soon changed to fierce terror as she spotted the crimson man reappearing behind one of the agents and swiftly slitting his throat with a long bladed knife. Blood gushed out of the dying man as the other agents fired at the vanishing intruder wildly, the man soon materializing between two of them and stabbing them both in the soft flesh of their stomach.

Raven cried out as Laurien raised a hand to her own mouth to prevent herself from doing the same. Darwin herded them into a huddle behind the couches, trying to shield them from the massacre outside the window.

A tremendous whooshing sound turned their attention to the glass on other side of the room where to their horror they saw a giant tornado colliding with Hank's cerebro machine that he'd told them about yesterday. The sphere was ripped apart by the threatening winds, demolishing the building into a mess of carnage. Laurien glanced up at Hank, seeing the distress in his eyes as he witnessed his life's work turned into carnage.

Meanwhile, the crimson man drew ever closer as he quickly slaughtered all of the men outside, none of them standing a chance as he pierced through their chests with his knife and his tail.

"Come on, follow me!" Darwin yelled, ushering them all towards the door leading to the hallway. They dashed after him, sprinting down the hallway, only to be stopped by army men telling them to get back. They tried desperately to push through them, but were loudly interrupted by a large explosion that rocked the building, nearly knocking them off their feet. The men shot down the hallway at something coming forwards through the fiery cloud that had erupted from the atrium, as Laurien pulled a frozen Raven back towards the lounge after the others.

They stumbled as they reentered the room, the tornado looming towards them on one side and the crimson man murdering everyone who got in his way on the other, Laurien felt her stomach plummet as she realized that they were completely surrounded with no place to go. She hated the feeling of helplessness eating at her as they resumed huddling by the back wall, utterly cornered by the chaos around them.

The glass on their right with an ear shattering crash as an agent was thrown against it by the tornado, the shattered pieces littering the carpet of the lounge, as the man's body rolled towards them before stopping with his head lolling to the side as his eyes stared lifelessly at them.

Looking around at the other side of the room, Laurien found to her horror that there were only two men left in the courtyard as the demon suddenly emerged and wrapped his tail around one of the agents' necks, holding the man in front of his so as to discourage the other from shooting him. The man shot, growing tired of the game but unfortunately hit his colleague instead. The demon vanished into his cloud of smoke and reappeared behind the other man, his knife emerging grotesquely out of his belly.

As the agent fell heavily, the red man stepped forward through the open window that had gotten shattered by stray bullets in the fight and entered into the room and to their right, the group saw that the tornado had disappeared to reveal a sharply dressed man in a blue shiny suit with long dark hair do the same.

Suddenly, a barrage of shots spewed from behind the double doors across from them, as they heard the guards' plea for mercy. "The mutants are right in there, just let us normal people go-" His voice abruptly ceased with what Laurien knew to be the unmistakable crack of a neck being snapped.

Raven whimpered quietly to Laurien's right, her grip on her wrist surely leaving purple bruises that would be visible within the next hour if they got out of there alive. She felt something brush her other arm and turned to see Hank backing into her as the red man crept closer, when the double doors suddenly burst open, making her jump.

A man, wearing what seemed to be a helmet of some sorts, sauntered in, gazing at them in what Laurien could only describe as some warped version of pride, before he turned to the red man.

"Where's the telepath?" He asked in a deep gravelly voice that seemed to echo off the walls of the lounge.

"Not here." The red man growled.

"Too bad." He said lightly. "Well, at least I can take this silly thing off." He removed the helmet and quickly handed it off to the man in the blue suit.

"Good evening, my name is Sebastian Shaw." He greeted as if they were the host at a bloody dinner party. "And I am not here to hurt you."

Laurien found herself severely doubting that statement, despite his deceivingly charming smile. She'd met men like him before, charismatic men who had a way with words and a great knowledge of how to manipulate someone by only using those means.

"Freeze." An obviously late and foolish CIA agent shouted from the courtyard.

Shaw barely turned his head in acknowledgment, keeping his eyes on the mutants. "Azazel."

Azazel vanished, slaying the man and reappearing, all in a matter of seconds, making it very clear to them to not try anything in his presence.

"My friends," Shaw continued as if nothing happened. "There's a revolution coming. When mankind discovers who we are, what we can do. Each of us will face a choice. Be enslaved, or rise up to rule."

He strolled closer to the terrified group, still smiling. "Choose freely, but know that if you are not with us, then by definition, you are against us." His face then turned serious, his eyes meeting Laurien's. "So you can stay, fight for the people who hate and fear you, or you can join me, and live like kings." His eyes shifted to Angel. "And queens."

He held out his hand to her, and to Laurien's dismay, she took it to a cry of outburst from the rest of them.

"Angel." Raven called as Shaw led Angel away from the others.

"Are you kidding me?" Sean exclaimed from the back.

Angel turned to them, pain and resolve filling her dark brown eyes. "Come on. We don't belong here. And that's nothing to be ashamed of."

Laurien stared after her, numbness creeping through her chest and up to her throat as Angel stepped over the sill of the shattered window. She barely even heard Raven as she said in a quiet murmur, "We have to do something."

Darwin turned to Alex, grasping his arm and whispering something in his ear before Alex shook his head and roughly shoved him back.

"Stop, I'm coming with you." Darwin called, rapidly striding towards Shaw and the line of other mutants.

"Good choice, so tell me about your mutation." Shaw asked, a grin returning to his smug face.

"Well, I adapt to survive." Darwin shrugged. "So I guess I'm coming with you."

Shaw smirked. "I like that." He clapped Darwin on the back as he joined their ranks.

Before they could get too comfortable, Darwin yelled "Alex!" He grabbed Angel, pulling her to the side as he covered her with his speedily changing form into hardened rock.

"Get out!" Alex screamed at the remaining mutants behind him, they dashed to the double doors as his bright red rings were sent spinning out towards Shaw. As she ran, Laurien noticed that something was different, the beams didn't cut through them, like they had the statue, but they seemed to hover and slowly disappear into Shaw's outstretched hands.

He greeted Alex with a sly grin. "Protecting your fellow mutants, that's a noble gesture." He looked down at his still glowing fingers as the power soaked in, smiling as the light slowly faded away. "Feels good."

Darwin lunged at him, his fist at the ready, but Shaw effortlessly blocked it with his own. As she stopped running, Laurien thought that she was hallucinating as she could have sworn that Shaw's hand grew in size as if it absorbed the blow.

Darwin stared wide-eyed at the man who then grabbed him by the chin.

"Adapt to this." Shaw whispered, forcing a small orb of glowing light into Darwin's mouth, before letting him go and vanishing along with the others.

Laurien strode slowly forwards, her eyes fixed on Darwin as she came up to where Alex was frozen, both of them barely noticing that other was there. Darwin morphed, his body changing desperately as it struggled futilely to adjust to the foreign body that was traveling down his throat. He almost seemed to realize it the same moment they did, as he raised his hand towards them, his eyes pleading, as his body glowed in a wave of energy that overtook him. Laurien felt her breath hitch with an intake of air, as the light disappeared, and along with it, Darwin.

 **Gah, every time I watch this scene in the movie, it gets sadder with every viewing. Wish we could have seen Darwin's character develop more before they abruptly killed him off. Anyway, school is starting soon, so the chapters might not come as fast as they used to. I love reading your reviews, so please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys, sorry this took longer than usual. School has started and I find it harder to keep up my writing mojo, but I will try my best to post a new chapter every week. Got hit with a major cold this weekend, not fun at all. I have been working on this chapter for the past two weeks, so I hope you enjoy!**

The night dragged on as they sat outside the front of the base, for what Laurien felt was an eternity. CIA agents passed by in a chaos of dark blue and black, leaving waves of mixed emotions in their wake, and with no one in their group saying a word to one another, Laurien sat on the frigid pavement, her ears tuning out the excess noise, as she was left alone with her thoughts.

It seemed a cruel punishment, being completely alone in your head after something traumatic had occurred, all of the racing thoughts of 'what if' and 'could have' would eat at your brain like famished mice. Laurien felt the painfully familiar sensation, complimented by a faint buzzing sound in her head that refused to let up as she felt the cold of the concrete seep through her clothes, consequentially causing her body to twitch and jerk as it crept into her bones.

Surviving members of the CIA had herded them out of the lounge to where they were sitting quietly now, but not before they had seen the body count that Shaw had left in his wake. Besides the slaughter in the courtyard and the array of fallen bodies, they were told that the earthshaking boom that they had heard earlier was the main atrium being blown up in a fiery explosion, killing everyone in it and some in the surrounding rooms.

Laurien could remember the last time she had seen so many bodies lying about, after a bombing in her childhood town. Whole houses and streets had been completely ripped apart by the explosives, leaving nothing behind but a large crater and piles of what had previously been there. It had admittedly taken a long time for Laurien to forget those images, but to her dismay, the evening's events had brought it all screaming back again.

They were supposed to be safe here; she thought bitterly, that's what Charles had promised them. But instead, on their second day, they were attacked by their own kind and forced to watch helplessly as countless men were ruthlessly murdered around them. But surely, she reasoned, he couldn't have foreseen this, no one could have, for all he knew this was the safest place on earth.

And Darwin… Oh, Lord, she was never going to be able to get his last fleeting gaze out of her head. He had looked so afraid, so filled with childlike fear that it made her heart ache terribly. She couldn't understand why it made her so upset; she'd only known him for two days, but in those two days he had proven himself to be a brave good-natured man.

This was exactly why she didn't let herself get attached, awful things happened when you allowed someone to get close to you, and you knew full well how it was to end, only in pain. He had done a valiant deed, but at the same time it was a sorely reckless thing to do, to put himself in the position where Shaw could hurt him.

That was the difference between them, Darwin took a risk that sadly didn't pay off, but he at least tried, whereas Laurien had little to say on the matter of risk taking. She had to admit that trusting Erik and Charles was a leap of faith, but that was the first one she'd taken in years. Better safe than sorry, she had always reminded herself. But even staying in the safe zone wasn't without its dangers.

She could feel her head getting overloaded on her debates and thoughts, as if her questions were a barrage of news reporters all simultaneously screaming for answers that she couldn't provide. Not without dissecting a specific inquiry, which her brain was not allowing her to do at that moment.

Her body was overtaken by a sudden wave of iciness as she gritted her teeth stiffly, trying to stave off the urge to cry out in pure frustration with herself. Why was she so stupid? Why couldn't she have done something to stop Shaw from killing Darwin? The bastard hadn't even stuck around to witness the consequences to his actions, but fled before Darwin was left to die in front of her and Alex.

Oh neuken, Alex. She'd completely forgotten about him. Calming down, Laurien glanced guiltily up to where he sat, hunched over, his face as emotionally stony as ever. He might not show a lot of how he felt to them, but by his body language, she could tell that he was hurting inside. With his jaw firmly clenching and unclenching, and as he slowly lowered his head into his hands, the telltale signs of grief were clearly evident.

Light was beginning to appear along the horizon as dawn came upon them, lessening the effect the night had on their nerves in the darkness. Morning was coming, but it wouldn't erase the memory of the nightmare from their minds.

The CIA agents slowed to a brisk walking pace as they passed the mutants on their way in and out of the base. Laurien observed them as they went by, noticing their flushed faces as the air whipped against their skin and the fatigue that weighed down on all their shoulders from a sleepless night. She felt sorry for them, considering that most of them had either lost friends or close colleagues in the attack, but still had to continue working and dealing with the aftermath.

Oh, God, she wanted to scream. Something was building inside of her threatening to burst out of her chest, and an enormous sense of pressure was surrounding her head, as she tried to quell it by focusing on the light slowly spreading farther into the sky.

Unable to stand her contained emotions for much longer, Laurien stood up abruptly. "I'm going for a walk. I'll be back in a little bit." She mumbled to no one in particular, wincing as she heard how terse and awkward it sounded out loud. Not hearing the small protests from behind her, she blindly headed towards the nearby forest that laid spread out around the building, hoping to find release without the watching eyes of the others on her back.

As she walked towards the trees, she found that the cold had still not relinquished its hold on her. This was odd in her mind, considering that she preferred and even prospered in wintry environments, but what was even stranger was the fact that it was only the start of September. She hugged herself tightly as she reached a path; large shadows were stretched far in the morning light, as she followed the cobblestone pattern through the tall trees.

She continued for a few minutes before stopping dead in her tracks, a sudden bizarre sensation rushed up to her chest, and feeling it take control of her emotions, she turned to the nearest towering tree and slammed her fist into its coarse bark. The blow echoed up her arm and through her body like a reverberation, she reveled in the sharp crackling pain it shot through her fingers and hit again.

Over and over, she delivered blow after blow into the splintering bark, her training coming back to her as she envisioned the tree as an adversary, someone to be defeated. The punches soon grew wild and desperate as the skin split from her knuckles, the spots where she made contact slowly being smudged with crimson. Her thoughts were overwhelming to say the least, voices and words racing through her head at an unfathomable pace, until it all built up into a horribly familiar scream that had her seeing bright red.

Having quite enough, Laurien let out a strangled cry as she backed away sharply, savagely ripping the tree up from the roots with her mind as a barrage of dirt and mulch attacked her. She could feel the ripple of power running in her veins, the delicious burning sensation that tore through the channels of pumping blood as the overwhelming rage flowed along with it. Throwing it as hard as she could away from herself, it soared through the forest, as straight a spear, before smashing into a large boulder with a dense thud and promptly collapsing to the ground.

Laurien stood there, staring unseeingly at the misplaced tree as the blood ran down her fingers and dripped onto the ground, staining the dirt speckled cobblestone beneath her. The red before her eyes slowly dissolving as her crushing emotions went with it, leaving her with a desolate pit at the bottom of her stomach. She couldn't feel anything, no sadness, no regret, she was numb; any rage that she'd previously held had been expended to the fullest on her petty tree breakdown.

Neuken, why did she have to lose it like that? She knew better than to let her emotions boil over in such an idiotic and exposing way.

"Impressive."

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of the low murmur that floated from directly behind her. She hastily spun around, only to come face to face with none other than the metal bender, Erik Lensherr. In surprise at his close proximity, she accidentally lashed out reflexively with her hand, but he snatched up her wrist quickly before it could do any harm.

"Easy now, we don't want to be repeating last time, now do we?" He said softly, his steely blue gaze curiously searching her own wide accusing stare. "I have no intention of hurting you, Laurien."

His eyes then flicked down to the hand he was holding and took in the bloody broken mess that was her knuckles, the claret now seeping down to her wrist where his fingers were wrapped tightly. His other hand came around to grasp hers and brought it up to compare the damage with the first, his eyes giving her nothing to go on as they flitted between the two.

"You lead prominently with your right." He stated, adjusting his hold so that he was carefully cradling her hands in his. His skin felt warm against her cold flesh, she could sense the heat seeping through her numb fingers and almost immediately flinched when the pain sparked through her knuckles as the nerves warmed up. She lowered her head quickly to mask the discomfort that would surely show through her betraying irises.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Laurien inquired stiffly, feeling the urge to rip her hands away from his grip, but resisted as she found herself relishing in the warmth it gave off.

"Nothing really, just an observation." He stated simply.

She knew that it might be more than just a simple observation, but she let it slide, with her head pounding the way it was, she wanted to get straight to the point.

"Why did you leave for Russia?"

"Sorry?"

"You and Charles just kind of up and left without telling us anything."

Erik sighed, his small outtake of breath leaving his mouth in a faint mist due to the early morning air as he held her hands closer to his body, almost as if he could sense the allure to his heat. She felt strange standing there with a man she hardly knew, gripping her fingers close to his chest so she could feel the soft palpitations of his heart. She hadn't been so close to someone in a long time, and she admittedly wasn't quite sure if she completely disliked the proximity to the man.

"I'm afraid that I cannot disclose that information." He uttered smoothly in his low magnetic voice.

Laurien raised an eyebrow, utterly intrigued. "And why not?"

He shrugged in a blatant display of fake innocence. "A matter of national security."

She scoffed. "Vol volslagen onzin."

He smirked, apparently understanding what she had said, which only made her angrier, but before she could say anything else, he swiftly changed the subject. "What are you doing all the way out here? It's much safer back at the base with the others." He said, his head bowing down to her level as he tried to engage her eyes.

"Really?" She asked rhetorically. "It doesn't seem like anywhere is safe anymore, not even when you're surrounded by a thousand or more trained CIA agents."

Erik nodded angrily, his handsome face setting into a frustrated frown and a deeply furrowed brow as he looked off towards the base. "I know all too well, this is Shaw's work." He growled. "This should never have happened."

Laurien stared up at him in surprise, raising a questioning eyebrow and ripping her hands away from him at the mention of the assailing mutant's name. "You knew about him?"

Erik remained silent, his eyes darkening as if he had just realized that he had involuntarily revealed a piece of valuable information. He began backtracking as smoothly as only he could, dropping her hands and stepping back, but with her fading patience, Laurien wasn't about to let him get away with it this time.

She impulsively grabbed him by the lapels of his leather jacket, her grip strong and unwavering as she shoved him up against a nearby tree, the breath being pushed out of him at the impact. "Look, Erik, if there's something you and Charles haven't told the rest of us, you'd better fucking do it right now. We're supposed to be a team. Darwin died for Christ's sake, at the hands of that maniac and we couldn't do a fucking thing to stop it from happening. We have a damn right to know just what the hell happened last night."

Erik stared down at her with wide fascinated eyes as she could feel the electricity of the earlier adrenaline still running through her veins, she was not to be trifled with at that moment and Erik knew it.

He cleared his throat, his serious gaze flickering to her set mouth before returning to her glowing daggers for eyes. "I've known Shaw for many years, and I've seen exactly what he can do. He ripped my family apart." His voice wavering a bit, but he continued on. "I have been tracking him my entire life, and in the midst of it all, my search was what led me to Charles."

Laurien frowned. "How did he rip your family apart?" She asked, but despite her anger she quickly recovered her manners when she saw the morose look that flickered across his face. "If you don't mind me asking."

He gave a small shake of his head, as if he was ridding himself of an old memory, before addressing her softly. "That might be a subject for another day,"

"How did you and Charles meet?" She asked, changing the subject as she felt herself finally calming down.

"I had managed to find Shaw two weeks ago, and Charles saved me when I admittedly got a little bit over my head when he tried to get away. Would you mind if you allowed me to remove myself from the tree, I can feel a knot sticking into my back and it's rather uncomfortable."

She sighed, letting go of him and backing away. "I guess Charles is good at that, saving people."

He nodded, his eyes softening as he moved himself off of the tree and towards her. "Look, we both know you didn't just come out here for the fresh American forest air, so why don't you just tell me what's going on with you?"

She grimaced, mentally cursing him for being so infuriatingly correct the whole time they'd been out there. "I- I just needed to clear my head." She mustered, the freezing temperature returning to haunt her body as the heated jolt from the spontaneous tree displacement and confrontation wore off. "With all those people and the chaos, I couldn't think straight. All of the emotions were-" She stopped, not wanting to have another outburst as she felt the crushing weight returning as she remembered.

"You can feel them, can't you? Other people's sentiments."

She nodded. "It's been getting worse over the past few days. I didn't used to be aware of it; I thought it was just that I could read people well, but I've recently noticed something odd when I'm around others, something akin to waves."

"How would you describe them, these waves?" He inquired, visibly enthralled with her eyes as they shifted to metallic silver.

"I'm not quite sure." She stated truthfully. "It's just when I'm close to people, I can perceive what they're feeling emotionally at that moment. It's almost like radiation waves, in the way the sun warms the earth…" She faded away, a sudden realization dawning on her. The theory might explain as to why she felt so chilled earlier, with all the chaos and fear, the people around her had been letting off swells of freezing temperatures. It made perfect sense, though at the same time, the new mutation development worried her.

She gave him a sideways glance, biting her lip anxiously as she mulled it over in her head. "I shouldn't be concerned about this, should I?"

He grinned, just then Laurien noticed the small dimples appeared in the middle of his cheeks as he smiled; it was a rather charming feature, she had to admit. "How about we start heading back, don't want to keep the others worrying. Here." He took off his leather jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders protectively. "Your hands were freezing."

Laurien was taken aback by the kind gesture as she thanked him, engulfed in the blissfully warm jacket. Perhaps, she thought carefully, she had judged Erik too quickly during that first meeting, and by seeing the fading purple bruise around his cheek bone, she then remembered what she had been meaning to say when she saw him again. "Hey, I meant to say this sooner, but I'm sorry about punching you when we first met in my apartment."

To her surprise, he chuckled. "Don't worry about it, but I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of your right hook again.

She felt the corners of her mouth turn up into a smirk, as they started heading back down the path towards the base.

 **Yay, Erik. I love Michael Fassbender, can't wait to see Macbeth next month. I saw Slow West not too long ago and I enjoyed it very much. A very odd and quirky movie, but interesting to say the least. Watched First Class last night, made me feel better since I was feeling rotten the whole day. Also saw Black Mass yesterday, which I recommend for any Johnny Depp or Benedict Cumberbatch fans. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! How's it going? I'm good, still getting over my cold, but much better. Hope you all had a wonderful week, and here is the next chapter, the longest I've written so far for this story. Enjoy!**

After Erik had led her back to where the rest of the mutants and a thoroughly concerned Charles were waiting, she was told that they had made arrangements for them to be taken home, with all that had happened, Charles didn't want the rest of them getting hurt.

"We're not going home." Sean stated under his breath.

"What?" Charles asked, confused.

"He's not going back to prison." Sean gestured to Alex plainly, who then said. "He killed Darwin."

"All the more reason for you to leave." Charles countered, his face dead serious. "This is over."

Laurien felt her stomach drop; suddenly realizing that she didn't want to go back to her life of bleak solitude in her dilapidated apartment in New York. After only being with these people for a few days, she was surprised at how quickly she had gotten attached to them all in the small amount of time.

"Darwin is dead." Raven told Charles, her gaze unwavering as she looked at her brother. "And we can't even bury him."

The silence hung in the air between them all for a few terrible moments, the weight of her words hanging above them all as they all wished that they weren't true.

Erik broke the quiet with a low growl. "We can avenge him."

Laurien looked to where he was standing next to her as the others did the same, wondering if he really meant what he said behind those steely blue eyes of his.

"Erik, a word please." Charles muttered as he moved forward, passing Erik as he led him away from the group to talk in private. Laurien strained her ears to hear what they were saying, but to no avail. The pit in her stomach was growing with every second that she waited to hear the final verdict to if they were truly being sent home.

Erik spoke strongly to his friend and Charles seemed to be battling some inner struggle as he listened, not exactly liking what he was hearing. He turned to face them all, looking at each one in turn before uttering the words she'd been waiting for.

"We'll have to train," He stated, a little unsure of himself. "All of us. Yeah?"

"Yeah." Alex responded, making the corners of Laurien's mouth jump into a faint smile as relief spread over her like wildfire as Charles nodded solemnly.

"Well, we can't stay here." Hank chimed in from behind her, nervously biting his lip. "Even if they reopened up the department, it's not safe. We've got nowhere to go."

Charles' demeanor appeared to change as an idea dawned on his face before morphing into the hopefully determined look she'd see on the first day they'd met. "Yes, we do."

Raven seemed to understand what he meant and jumped in excitement, as the rest of them just stood there confused at the two of them. They were soon herded onto the back of a very large truck filled with their suitcases that reminded Laurien of the ones she'd seen in Alkmaar during the war. A round canopied roof protected them from the winds as they traveled, the fabric buffeted around the steel framing like a weathered flag, filling Laurien's ears with the incessant sound.

She was relieved to be finally leaving the CIA base, with all its blatant reminders of the recent events and monstrosities. In the truck, it was almost easy to pretend that nothing had happened at all, that it had only been a dream, but when she glanced around at the others, she could still see the effects weighing down on them. Across from her, Raven had her head resting on Charles' shoulder as he talked to Moira, soon falling asleep despite the violent rocking of the truck. Sean was nervously running his fingers through his curly auburn hair, making the strands stick up at odd angles as a morose looking Alex from the far end watched him numbly. Beside her, Erik was apparently lost deep in his thoughts, as he stayed perfectly poised in his seat during the entire ride, not even budging a muscle. After their conversation in the forest, she did admittedly feel more at ease around the metal bender, but not entirely so that she lost all suspicion of the man.

Hank sat on the other side of Laurien, reading what seemed to be an outrageously large textbook about something to do with airplane mechanics. She could feel his anxiety as he flipped through the pages spastically, as if he were trying to make himself read a thousand words per second. Her heart ached terribly, in only the two days they'd spent with one another, Laurien couldn't help but immediately see characteristics of her sister, Roosje, in Hank. How he seemed socially awkward around others, the way he would bury himself in books when he was upset, and even when he would frown, furrowing his brow behind his glasses, it brought bittersweet memories of Roosje racing back into her head.

Seeing and feeling his distress made her feel oddly broken inside, and after wondering for a while, she then immediately reached into her black purse that had been retrieved from her room before they left, and delicately placed a Hopjes on the open page of his book. Hank stared surprisingly at the candy encased in the little white and yellow wrapper, before looking up at her with questioning eyes. Laurien nodded towards the candy, gesturing for him to take it, as he silently raised an eyebrow. He gingerly picked the Hopjes up with his forefinger and his thumb, raising it slowly as if it were to explode at any given moment. Carefully unwrapping the candy, he tentatively popped it into his mouth as Laurien watched for his reaction. Only a moment later did his face register in a small smile, as the taste of the coffee flavored candy danced smoothly on his tongue.

She felt his mood lift almost instantly, and she in turn felt better for it. He gave her a small nod that she took for thanks and returned to his book, no longer flipping the pages so aberrantly. The ride continued on for what felt potentially like an hour or two before they finally rolled to a stop, and Charles gently prodded Raven awake before excitedly leading them all out of the truck. Upon her turn, Laurien pushed aside the canvas to reveal a sweeping field of green that stretched out for a kilometer before disappearing into a lush forest that seemed to go on forever. Erik held out a hand to help her down from the truck, which she gladly took, considering the last thing she wanted to do was fall flat on her face.

When she made it safely to the solid ground, Erik gently rubbed his thumb over her bruised knuckles that were now coated in dry cracked blood. "You should get those cleaned and bandaged up once we're inside."

She frowned. 'Inside where?' She thought, but when she turned away from the field, she was surprised to see a giant castle of a mansion towering before her. Her eyes went wide when she took in all of its beauty, the brick walls, the gorgeous windows and flawless architecture. She knew for a fact that if her father saw this place, he would die of happiness before resurrecting himself to examine the pillars in detail. The others seemed as stunned as she was, Sean was gawking, his chewing gum fell out of his mouth as his jaw fell open, while the other two just stared up at the building in awe.

"This is yours?" Sean asked, unbelieving.

"No, it's ours." Charles responded, a small twinkle flashing in his eye as he looked back at them.

"Honestly Charles, I don't know how you did it, living with such hardship." Erik mumbled sarcastically, as he took in the sight.

Raven made her way from the back of the group up to where Erik and Charles were conversing. "Well, it was a hardship softened by me." She joked as Charles kissed her lovingly on the top of her head. She sighed. "Come on, time for the tour."

They followed Raven towards the front of the mansion; she led them to a pair of handsomely polished oak doors that swung out of their way as Charles opened them wide for their entire group to enter. Laurien felt the hall take her breath away as she entered, greeted by the comforting smell of old craftsmanship that her father had taught her to appreciate. There were chandeliers hanging from the ceiling surrounding a large fine table that reflected the main chandelier hanging above it. Ahead of her lay a perfectly carved staircase that split into two on the first landing, both leading opposite directions next to an immense window that displayed the front yard in all its glory.

"It's beautiful." Laurien gasped, as she neared the staircase, placing a tentative hand on the solid oak banister to her right to feel its smooth touch.

Charles chuckled behind her, "I see your father's architectural interest has passed on after all. He would be very proud."

She paused for a moment, confused at how he had known, before remembering that he was a bloody telepath. She quickly shrugged off her foolish forgetfulness with a small bashful smile at the compliment and continued following Raven as she skipped up the stairs like an excited girl who'd just come home from a long vacation, eager to familiarize herself with the house again.

"When was it built?" She asked Charles as they tried to keep up with Raven.

"Somewhere in the seventeen hundreds, I believe." He replied, thoughtfully. "Though we've certainly made some renovations here and there as things have fallen apart, so there are some parts that are newer than others."

They moved about the house, seeing the individual bedrooms and common spaces where they would be spending most of their time, and soon going back down to visit the kitchens and what appeared to be Charles' office, nestled comfortably in a room by the stairs. Raven was overjoyed to show them her room, neatly decorated with coordinated colors and pictures of different famous stars, most of which displayed a dazzlingly gorgeous Audrey Hepburn smiling down at them. Audrey was a favorite of Laurien's, being the Dutch girl she was, she always had a soft spot for the Arnhem raised actress, which wasn't all too far from Alkmaar.

They were shown to their rooms, all of them residing in the same hallway and as Laurien opened the door to her room, she was greeted by a simply lovely sight. Inside the large area, that was bigger than her whole apartment, surrounded by beautiful wood paneling, was a set up of a cozy double bed, a strongly built wardrobe and an utterly enormous desk with a vase of fresh red roses. In her excitement, she skipped over to the bed like a small child and practically threw her body onto it, giggling to herself as the springs sent her bouncing along.

Raven ran through the doorway, surprising Laurien as she leapt onto the bed and almost sent her flying off of it before she caught herself on the duvet.

"This is going to be fun." Raven gushed as she grasped Lauren's hands in her own, still bouncing around. A loud bell rang from down the hall, making Laurien freeze in sudden alarm, Raven giggled as she noticed her tension. "Oh, that's nothing to worry about, it's just how Charles says that breakfast is ready, come on."

"Ready? What do you mean it's ready, we just got here." Laurien asked as she got off the bed to follow Raven.

"Charles called the staff before we got here to have some food prepared for us." Raven explained as she knocked on all the other doors of the other mutants. "Come on guys, breakfast!"

Sean poked his head out first. "Do I smell bacon?"

Laurien almost snorted out loud at the question, before Hank wandered out into the hallway, his glasses slightly askew on the tip of his nose. At the mention of bacon, he simply shuddered and returned back into his room. Raising an amused but questioning eyebrow, Laurien turned around to find that Alex was standing right behind her, making her jump.

"Jesus, Alex! You scared me."

"Meh, it's a habit." He shrugged, before heading out towards the staircase.

They followed him a couple of steps before Laurien caught sight of her wrecked knuckles as she put her hand on the banister. She somehow kept forgetting what she'd done to them, though a subtle flex of her fingers brought the reminder surging back as her hands throbbed painfully.

Remembering what Erik had told her do, she ceased her descent of the stairs, she sighed, breakfast would just have to wait. "I'll be back in a minute." She said to no one in particular, as she dashed up the stairs to her room and where her suitcase was lying by the foot of her bed. Getting to her knees, Laurien unlocked the case and riffled through her belongings till she happened upon her first aid kit. She grabbed the kit and hurried towards the nearest bathroom, which admittedly took her longer than she would have liked to find.

She opened the door and to her surprise she found that someone else was already standing in front of one of the mirrors, Hank, who must have slipped away from his room unnoticed as they went down the hall.

"Oh, sorry." She quickly apologized, making to leave but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw his red tear stained face. "Hank, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." He sniffed, the blue in his eyes bright from crying. "It's nothing, I'm fine."

"No you're not, Hank. Please-" One of the bathroom stalls caught her eye and when she turned, she gasped when her eyes took in the copious amounts of vomit that had accumulated in the toilet.

"It's the smell from the kitchen." Hank choked out, rubbing his eyes angrily as he reached over and flushed the toilet.

"The breakfast?" She inquired, feeling horribly inadequate to help in this situation.

Hank nodded, but then a moment later, shook his head, leaving her sadly confused.

"I just feel sick to my stomach, with all that's happened, I just can't- I don't-" Tears began to flow again as he became flustered with his words, Laurien suddenly felt something come over her as she instinctively moved forward and wrapped her arms around him. He seemed a little take aback by the sudden gesture, but he soon leaned into the hug and held her back.

His waves of distress slowly subsided to a calmer state as they embraced before Laurien pulled away and stood up on her tiptoes to wipe the tears from his cheeks with her thumbs. "Everything's going to be all right, Hank. We're safe here. You'll see soon enough."

He nodded slowly, with drying eyes, and after a few moments of silence, he finally broke the quiet with a question that changed the mood entirely. "Do you have any more of those coffee candies?"

Laurien giggled, the sound of her laughter making a small smile break onto his face as she replied, "Of course I do."

She dug her hand into the pocket of her skirt and unearthed the little yellow and white wrapped sweet. "I always make sure to have some on hand." She winked, handing it to him.

"What did you do to your hand?" He exclaimed, as he noticed her knuckles, glad to find a change of subject.

"Hands." She confessed, sighing as she raised the other one up guiltily. "I beat up a tree."

"That's not exactly something you hear everyday." He joked lightly, though his eyebrows furrowed as he looked at her questioningly.

"Long story, I don't want to get into it." She replied, answering the question she read behind his eyes as she scrunched up her face when her hands twinged painfully. "You wouldn't happen to know how to clean and bandage these, would you?"

He nodded again. "Yeah, if you want to sit-" He started to gesture to the toilet, but then remembering, thought better of it and told Laurien to sit on the counter near the sink instead.

"So," She started, seeing if she could distract him from thinking about the events of last night. "What's it like being a boy genius working for the CIA."

He chuckled as he investigated the small first aid kit. "Uh, it's all right, I guess."

"Come on, it's got to be better than just all right."

"Okay, I guess it's pretty cool." He conceded, sniffling as his cheek reddened bashfully.

"Were your folks happy when you got the job?" She asked, carefully rubbing the excess dried blood off her skin.

"Yeah, I suppose so. My father was a bit disappointed, he always thought I would do something a little more interesting with my life."

"Interesting?"

He blushed again. "Yeah, with the feet and all."

She nodded, understanding. "Any brothers and sisters?"

"No, one deformed child was enough for my parents."

"Oh, Hank-" She started, but he cut her off.

"No, it's all right, I shouldn't have said that." He stated dismissively as he turned on the tap of the sink next to her, testing the water's temperature before guiding her hands beneath the stream of cool water. Laurien gasped as the icy liquid met the broken skin of her knuckles, sudden sparks of sharp pain blossoming throughout her hands before numbing down to a dull ache.

"What about you?" He asked loudly, almost startling her.

"Sorry?"

"Your parents, what did they think about your mutation?" He elaborated, his voice seemingly getting steadier by the second. "Sorry, I just hate talking about myself."

"Oh, that's fine." she said, wondering if she'd even met anyone before who didn't like talking about themselves. It was usually most people's favorite thing to do. "Yeah, they were fine with it, they actually encouraged it. But they only ended up seeing the eye aspect of it."

Hank raised an eyebrow. "Why not your telekinesis?"

Laurien took in a deep breath, summoning her courage, as she knew that she would need to explain it at some point or another while she was here. "Because my telekinesis started to develop when I was around fifteen, maybe, and my parents died shortly beforehand."

Hank looked up at her, his blue eyes alarmed. "Jesus, I'm so sorry." When she waved it off, he then asked. "How did they die, if you don't mind me asking?"

She could almost feel the actual heat rushing up her arms as the horrible images and feelings flooded back, her breath catching in her throat as she tried her best to make the air flow into her lungs to quell the emotions. She could remember almost every little detail of that day, the pain, the confusion, and worst of all, the silence.

"Sorry," She gasped out, pausing to take a deep steady breath to keep her heart from sinking, as she ignored the fact that her hands were completely numb with pins and needles from the cold water. "I know it's been a while, but it's still a little hard to talk about it."

"Oh, no, it's fine," Hank blurted, as he fumbled with the bandages in his haste to rectify the situation, looking utterly terrified at the prospect that he'd upset her. "I'm sorry, it was insensitive of me to ask."

Laurien breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't lost her calm demeanor, but still felt bad for putting Hank in this awkward position and for putting the conversation at a dead end. She could feel the hot embarrassment radiating from his body as he gently removed her hands from underneath the water.

"I have two younger siblings, though." She started, trying to continue what they had started.

Hank grinned shyly, giving Laurien more confidence. "What age?"

"They must be fifteen now." She guessed, and at Hank's confused look, she elaborated. "They're twins."

"Ah!" Hank exclaimed softly, as he carefully layered the bandages over the sore throbbing skin of her knuckles. "Did you know that because of your family's specific genetics, you are more likely to have twins when you have children?"

She chuckled. "Yes, that's what my sister used to tell me when she got into reading those kinds of books. I honestly cannot imagine having kids, let alone twins."

"What are they like, your siblings?"

Laurien cleared her throat, feeling a tentative excitement build in her chest at the fact that she got to talk about her siblings, which she hadn't been able to for a long time. "Well, Roosje is basically the brightest mind I've ever met, she's so much better at everything in school than I was at her age, but she doesn't seem to talk much to anyone either than our brother and myself, she's too wrapped up in her books for her own good." She said, feeling a small grin rising as she remembered the little weathered copy of Anne of Green Gables Roosje would carry around with her.

"Bastijn is a vrije geest, what you call a free spirit here. He plays all sorts of sports, but he prefers football, or soccer as you say, always running around with a smile on his face. He's always smiling, I just can't understand how he does it, for as long as I can remember he's had that air about him that just cheers you up when you're around him, it's simply infectious." Laurien faded off slowly, the glow in her heart slowly fading as reality slammed back into her like a brick wall. "But I haven't seen them for a long time."

Hank frowned, as he wrapped the finishing touch of gauze around her hands. "What happened to them?"

Laurien quickly realized her mistake and corrected herself. "Oh, they're fine, they just live in Belgium now, nothing bad."

"Oh, you had me worried for a second." He grinned as he tied off the end of the strip of fabric, standing back to admire his handiwork. "There, all clean and wrapped up."

Laurien lifted her hands out before her, eyes looking over the expertly neat and proper technique he'd used. Knowing herself better than most, she knew that she would have made a royal mess out of it if she'd done it herself.

"Thank you so much, Hank." She pushed herself off the counter, just narrowly missing putting herself off balance by quickly grabbing onto the sink when she slipped on the tiled floor. "I do truly owe you one."

Hank waved her off, the redness creeping back into his cheeks. "It was nothing, really."

Laurien quickly glanced over at the door before turning back to her companion. "Are you going to be all right going downstairs, or should I bring you something up later?"

Hank shook his head, a look of determination filling his eyes. "No, I think I'll be fine, just as long as you'll be there."

She smiled reassuringly, "Of course." She placed a soft hand on his arm, before leading him out of the bathroom and downstairs towards where the others were waiting with breakfast.

 **Woohoo, October's almost here, and fall is in the air. Usually I don't get so chipper about these sort of things, but I have to admit that I have been feeling happier lately, it might be because Macbeth is almost upon us and because of your guys' kind words and amazing encouragement these past few weeks. So, thank you so much to each and every one of you! Please review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys! Hope you all had a great week! Canadian Thanksgiving was this weekend, lots of fun including mashed potatoes and a double viewing of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which I do not regret one bit. :) I will admit it, this chapter was a pain in the butt to write, which was why it took so long. Hope you enjoy!**

The next two weeks passed by in a haze of long days and even longer nights as the mutants trained at the mansion for what was to come. Most days consisted of expanding the reaches of their mutations, and many hours of taxing physical activity, which admittedly, Laurien didn't mind, as it took her mind of the barrage of intruding thoughts accumulating inside her head. She had taken up running around the property every morning before her training sessions with Erik and Charles. With the encouragement of the cold morning air filling her lungs, she pushed her body further and further until she felt as if she might pass out right there on the pristinely cut lawn.

There was just something alluring in the way the brisk chill bit at her throat and the wind rushing through her caramel hair that sent her into a fit of utter conviction that seemed to drive Laurien to her edge of her abilities in exhilarating adrenaline. Though somehow, the excitement troubled her. In what way, she'd no clue, but the feeling was only one of the aspects on a growing list that kept her up at night, staring numbly at the four walls of her room.

Her knuckles had long since healed, though as she glared up at the blank canvas that was her ceiling, she found herself unconsciously stretching her arms into the air to flex her long delicate fingers, desperately craving to feel the sharp ache through her bones once more. Laurien hadn't managed more than a few hours sleep each night since they'd arrived at the mansion, though she kept it to herself, mostly in fear that Charles might send her back to New York if he didn't think she was adjusting properly.

"Charles wouldn't do that." She reasoned silently, bathing in the soft glow of the moon through her window as she drew the covers up to her chin. "He's a kind man, maybe too kind for his own good, but he would never do such a thing."

"Everyone seems nice in the beginning." An ominous voice mentioned in the profound depths of her mind. "Remember Dan? How could you ever forget? He was almost the death of you."

With that, she threw the covers over her head, willing herself to just fall unconscious for the remaining hours before dawn, before she would ultimately give up all hope and grab her runners. It was almost a sort of therapy, running, though there was a far darker psychological reasoning behind it. Late one evening in a sitting room chair, as she felt herself growing stupid from the two weeks long lack of sleep, she had somehow diagnosed that she was quite literally running from her problems. She had giggled weakly at the thought, before feeling her eyes roll back into her head as she slumped forward, her chin resting against her chest.

She was vaguely aware of being lifted effortlessly, feeling weightlessly cozy as she snuggled unconsciously into the warm solid figure she was being carried by. She heard the deep rumblings of voices before she was deposited gently onto a colder soft surface, grimacing as the pleasant warmth slowly disappeared.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed after that, but awoke to what appeared to be the next evening all tucked into her bed, utterly bewildered at how she'd gotten there as the hazy memories of last night were gone from her memory. Feeling a strongly unsettling sense of déjà vu as she kicked off the blankets, she dismissed the thought that she'd missed a whole twenty-four hours of her life and simply reveled in the happy fact that she'd actually slept without issue. Attempting to snap herself out of what felt to be comparable to a hangover, she padded over to where she'd left her runners after the last day's therapy session. It admittedly took her over five minutes to fully register that they weren't beside the desk, or even in the room at all. Frowning, she sidled out of the room and down the hallway to where Raven's door was fully ajar and bleeding out the elegantly rising chorus of Edith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien".

"Have you seen my runners?" She asked, poking her head through the door. "I seem to have misplaced them."

Raven glanced up from her magazine with a look that could only be described as flummoxed, making Laurien grin inwardly at the silly sounding word, before returning to the matter that had made Raven create that face.

"Do you think Marilyn Monroe was having an affair with Kennedy?"

Laurien was taken aback by the question, as this was the first she'd heard anything of the sort. "What makes you think that they were having an affair?"

Raven rolled her eyes playfully, as if the answer was so blatantly obvious. "It says so right here." He passed Laurien the magazine, the front page displaying what appeared to be Miss Monroe, in a rather risqué rhinestone dress, singing at the president's birthday party a few months back.

Laurien read over the inside paragraph sparingly as it explained the detailed cahoots between the two celebrities before handing it back to Raven with a skeptical raised eyebrow.

"I don't know, Raven. Seems a little far fetched to me."

The blonde sighed dramatically, glancing down at the recently deceased star, before unexpectedly morphing into the gorgeous woman. Laurien almost leapt back against the door in her surprise as her heart missed a beat at the sudden change, amazed at how it was almost like Marilyn had simply jumped off the page and into the room.

"Hey, sugar." She drawled sweetly, her eyelashes fluttering seductively.

"Oh my God! That's eerie." Laurien exclaimed, clutching her heart as she stepped closer, admiring the detail of the beige rhinestone dress that Raven managed to copy stitch for stitch.

She heard footsteps from the doorway as Sean passed by, glancing in on them casually before doing a double take and almost tripping as he rushed inside. "Thank God!" He cried out, as he fell to his knees. "My prayers have been answered!"

Raven swiftly changed back to her regular self with a look of amused disgust on her face. "Go away, Sean. We are not turning this into another one of your weird fantasies."

His arms fell to his side in disappointment, before pushing himself off the ground and pouting at them as he dragged his feet off towards his room.

Raven giggled, shaking her head as she threw the magazine to the side. "Sorry, what was it you were looking for?"

Suddenly reminded of her primary objective, Laurien jumped back to her question. "I can't find my runners, I was wondering if you might have seen them?"

Raven shook her head. "Nope, can't say that I have."

Laurien frowned, utterly stumped. She always kept them in her room, though she wondered if she might have misplaced them in her sleep deprived state. She thanked Raven before returning to her room, her brain feeling scattered worse than it was before her impromptu hibernation.

Darkness soon descended fully on the mansion as the subtle bids of goodnight were heard from the hall every half hour or so, Laurien ultimately being the last awake as she tried to tire herself out in other means than running by reading Brave New World for the hundredth time. The worn copy her mother had given her for her thirteenth birthday was ragged and frayed along the corners of the cover, the title on the front slowly disappearing with every brush of her soft fingertips. The pages showed the hardship it had endured, ink stains, yellowing pigmentation and most worrying of all, the burnt edges, eaten away from the fire.

Laurien had managed to acquire quite the collection of novels over the years, such as Fahrenheit 451, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, The Bell Jar, and 1984, to name a few. All read multiple times and very responsible for fuelling Laurien's love of English literature, ever since she'd received her first book in the language, which was the cherished one she now held in her hands.

In no time at all, the clock chimed twice to inform her that it was now two in the morning, and alas, she sighed, she still wasn't the least bit tired. She was inexplicably irritated with herself for letting her runners slip through her fingers like that. Her forehead creased in pent up frustration, missing her run had made her restless. Her ankles and feet had unconsciously begun to flex and stretch against the maroon rug on the floor, as her fingers itched as she held her book in her lap, fingernails digging into the deteriorated cover, leaving shallow white claw marks to contrast against the deep blue.

She couldn't decide whether she was overly obsessing over the runners or was reasonably peeved. It honestly wasn't like her to misplace her belongings, not like her at all, and it gnawed at her, annoying her terribly. She tried to concentrate on the meanings of the words she was reading on the page, so she wasn't to accidentally skim over it again and again without taking it in, as she most frequently did when something was on her mind, but to no avail.

Sighing deeply, Laurien gently placed the book to the side, as even a small toss might be enough to tear it to pieces, and grabbed her pair of slippers before carefully stepping out of the bedroom. The mansion hallways were dimly lit at this time of night, though still enough to send elongated shadows across the carpeted floor as she braved the journey past where she usually frequented and into uncharted territory.

Finding a narrow staircase to the farthest east wing of the mansion, she followed the steep steps down to what she was surprised to find was a small room with tall shelves filled with a multitude of different types of books stretching from the floor to the ceiling. The room seemed to not have been inhabited for quite some time, as a thick layer of dust coated the discolored covers of the books and mahogany flooring, meaning that every time Laurien took a step forward, her foot left a slipper sized print behind.

She continued forward, careful to not disrupt the dust and cause an unwanted sneezing fit. Nearing one of the shelves, she wiped away the dust bunnies to find the title of Treasure Island written in magnificently golden letters. She grinned, her friend Bram had gone on and on about pirates and gold coins after reading the classic when they were younger. She reached up a tentative hand before cautiously pulling the book from its place, only to stumble backwards when a whole section of the shelf moved forward to reveal a wide passage way.

"Nice." She whispered quietly, grinning as she inspected the opening. Taking a cautious but exhilarating few steps forward, she suddenly hesitated as she was almost completely engulfed in the darkness. She outstretched her arm towards the staircase, mentally summoning the specific item she was looking for when she finally sensed its presence hurtling towards her. With a quick flex of her hand, she caught the flashlight as it came spiraling down into the room, making a satisfying smacking noise as it connected with her palm. She chuckled; having good use of the trick her teachers had taught her a few days ago.

Flicking the switch, light danced off the walls as Laurien stepped further into the mysterious passageway, her feet scuffing against the old carpeted floor. She shined the light towards the end, curious to see how far the tunnel went, and was surprised to see a peculiar split in her path. With a precarious looking staircase leading upwards and the passageway continuing onwards beside it, Laurien decided that the staircase might be an adventure for another time. She walked for what seemed like forever before she found herself nearing to what appeared to be a dead end.

Frowning, she gave an experimental push on the wall, just out of pure curiosity and confusion, for who would go through all the trouble of making a secret passageway, if it went nowhere? To her utter delight, the wall gave way just as the shelf did, and revealed the pristinely polished kitchen they'd visited on the first day at the mansion, though as she stepped into the room, she found that she wasn't alone.

A confused faced metal bender sat perched on the counter, a book in one hand and a half eaten apple in the other. He didn't say a word, but a simple rise of an eyebrow gave her everything she needed.

"I'm guessing you didn't come here through this way, did you?" She managed, fighting back laughter at the amusing look on his handsome face.

"No, but I certainly am tempted to leave through there on my way back to my room later." Erik replied, baffled as he discarded the book and the apple to come towards her and examine the tunnel up close.

"Quite magnificent, I think." Laurien commented, grinning as she watched after Erik as he entered the passageway. At his height, his head just tickled the roof, brushing away a few cobwebs as he went. "I wonder if Charles and Raven know about this?"

"If they don't, I would be very surprised." Erik called from deep inside the tunnel, his voice echoing softly against the walls. He soon reappeared, fascination deeply embedded in his steely blue eyes as he stepped down to the kitchen floor. "How did you come across it?"

"It was an accident really. Just went down a random staircase, found a shelf that opened with a pull of a book and wound up here."

Erik studied her thoughtfully for a moment before breaking the silence. "Are you hungry? I was thinking of making something for myself, you'd be more than welcome to join me."

Now that Laurien thought of it, she was incredibly famished, considering she hadn't eaten all day because of her hibernation stint. At that very moment, an overwhelming ache blossomed from her abdomen, causing her to wince slightly as she nodded. "Thank you."

Erik grinned back at her, his small smile sending a thrill of warmth through her chest as she watched him look around the kitchen, and for the first time since she'd met him, he looked utterly lost. "Well, this is a little embarrassing, but I don't have any idea of what to make."

She pondered her thoughts for a moment, only to be interrupted when another ache overtook her core, but made her think immediately of what she was craving. "Not to worry, I've got an idea."

It didn't take her long to find the ingredients in the gorgeously organized kitchen, and when she filed through the different pots and pans kept in a cupboard near the floor, she soon happened upon a somewhat peculiar looking cast iron pan with shallow round impressions in the bottom. Smiling, Laurien excitedly grabbed the pan and lifted herself from her crouch, only to be startled by the metal bender standing just next to her.

"Jezus!" She exclaimed, clasping the cool metal of the pan against her heart. "You need a fucking bell."

Erik chuckled, amused at her reaction. "Old habits die hard." He glanced curiously at the object in her hand, before it gently released itself of her grip and fell into his hands. "What's this?"

"That's a poffertjespan, it's used to make a sort of small fluffy pancake that they make back home." She summoned it back to her, gripping it tightly in her hand before turning to the stove. "You're going to love it."

"You sure you should be operating heavy machinery in your state?" He teased, making Laurien raise an eyebrow in surprise that he could provide such a playful remark, as he always seemed to be so serious and composed around the others.

"Firstly," She stated, spinning around to wave the pan in front of him. "Let's make this clear that this is hardly heavy machinery, and secondly, what state is that exactly?"

"I don't know. I just remember carrying you up to your room after I found you completely comatose from severe lack of sleep and about to fall headfirst out of the armchair last night."

Laurien blushed reluctantly at the thought of him touching her, feeling the comfortable warmth of his skin against hers. Abruptly realizing just what exactly she was thinking of, she shook her head minutely to rid herself of the incriminating thoughts, all the while feeling the hot prickling sensation creeping higher up her throat.

"Mmmhmm." She hummed, trying to make herself busy with the ingredients, but for that she had to approach Erik, as he had stationed himself right beside them as he studied her.

She moved cautiously closer, reaching for the flour with a tentative hand as she smoothly dismissed her recent problem. "Just haven't been sleeping all that well."

"Would you care to tell me why that is?"

Her heart almost skipped a beat in panic, fingers twitching as she felt her vision turning grey as anxiety sparked in her eyes. She stirred the slowly thickening batter as her mind raced with the delicate memories and feverish nightmares, annoyed that their playful conversation had taken this unfortunate turn.

"Erik, I'm sorry, but I really don't want to talk about it."

"It's all right, but you're going to have to talk about it sometime." He reasoned, quickly snatching up an egg that had been rolling towards the edge of the counter. "It's not healthy to keep everything all bottled up."

"Yeah, I know." Laurien sighed calmly, knowing that he was irritatingly right as always. "I try, I really do, but sometimes it just doesn't give. But when I do sleep, I just end up seeing- or feeling things that I'd rather forget, you know?"

"Is it about what happened to your parents?"

Her eyes flashed accusingly towards him, the very mention of the word sending a hot biting tremor down her forearms as they itched with remembrance. "How-"

He quickly silenced her worries with a raised hand, his eyes soft and reassuring. "It was just a guess, Charles mentioned something about it the first day we met you, I figured it had something to do with it."

Relief spread throughout her like blood from a wound, her breathing returning to its normal nervous pace. "It wasn't just a fire that night." She murmured steadily, realizing it was the first time she'd talked about it since it'd happened. "We'd just moved into a new house, my family and I, in the town of Rotterdam, the one the Nazis destroyed in the early forties."

"Yes, I remember the day they told us in the news, dreadful thing." He said, moving away from the counter to stand near her at the stove.

She nodded solemnly in agreement. "I wasn't born yet when it happened, but it had been fifteen years since the bombing, and they'd rebuilt rather quickly. Our house in Alkmaar was getting small with my siblings growing up, so we found a nice affordable house, big backyard and everything we could have hoped for." She smiled as she remembered how excited she'd been, exploring the dreamlike rooms of the house with Roosje and Bastijn. Her bedroom had faced out to the backyard, giving her a perfect view of the old swing set her grandfather had built before her birth. She'd never gotten the chance to meet him, as he was killed by the Nazis after being caught helping the resistance, and she was heartbroken when she outgrew it at the age of ten, felt as if she'd lost her only link to him.

"We'd maybe only been there for a week, when one evening I had just finished tucking in Roosje and Bastijn in their beds and was making my way downstairs when it happened."

Her face fell as she sucked in a shallow breath and gripped the handle of the stove in a means of support. "According to the brandweerlieden, my parents were in the backyard digging holes to plant some of the trees they'd bought at the market down the street, when my father's shovel hit an unexploded bomb left from the Blitz. It tore through everything, the yard, half of the house and set fire to the rest of it, took out the neighbor's house as well. Fortunately they were on vacation or it would have ripped them up too."

She sighed, turning to face Erik. "You see, it's something I'd like to forget, but I just can't seem to, for how could I with the reminders etched upon my skin. I'm reminded every single time the burns catch my attention."

"Can you show me?"

Laurien nodded, slowly rolling up the sleeves of her black shirt as she revealed the gruesome patchwork quilt of ivory and pink skin underneath. Erik tentatively reached out and traced a small ripple in the damaged skin, his touch sending shivers up her arms.

She hadn't mentioned the fact that when she'd regained consciousness from being knocked out by the blast, she'd screamed in pure agony as the flesh on her arms blistered and melted, for all the while the flames had licked at her arms and ate away the very skin they'd tasted.

"Laurien." He whispered softly, the emotion on his tongue accentuating the syllables in her name so perfectly that it sent shivers up her spine, as he put his hand on her waist and gently pulled her even closer to him.

She glanced up at Erik, her eyes finally meeting his dead on as he gently grasped her hand. In a spark of an unfamiliar sensation, emotion rolled off of him and into her body, the waves emitting a pleasant coolness that quickly ran up her arms and rested in her chest, making her gasp in surprise.

"I keep seeing it over and over," She whispered, feeling her thoughts jumble as her mind wandered elsewhere when she gazed into the steely blue pigmentation of his eyes. "And the prospect of having the nightmares still scares me, makes staying awake and feeling tired seem not so bad. I just don't want to relive it another time, you know?"

He nodded, his fingers gently rubbing soothing circles over the scars, before lifting a hand to cup her strong freckled cheek. Laurien found herself unconsciously leaning into his touch, barely breathing at the sudden tension in the air between them, the fast beating of her heart echoing those of his as he pulled her closer to him.

"It can't hurt you anymore, Laurien. These," He gestured to the scars on her forearms. "Are just proof that something tried to break you and you didn't let it. We're survivors, you and I." He stated, eyes flickering to her mouth before leaning down towards her.

She closed her eyes, feeling the unexpected anticipation stabbing at her like a knife to the abdomen, and then, their lips finally met. Soft and tentative at first, but as she responded to him, the kisses grew increasingly intense and passionate. His right hand on the back of her neck, his left pressing firmly on her waist, as hers went up to his shoulders and held him tightly against her.

Erik pushed her up against the counter, his lips traveling down her neck as she gasped for air. His hot mouth against her skin sparked a sensation Laurien had never experienced before, as he found a sweetly sensitive spot at her collarbone and consequentially her nails dug into his shirt in her ecstasy. His lips returned to hers, moaning in pleasure at the contact as he pulled her body against his and ran his fingers through her long wavy hair.

She soon became aware of the scent of something burning and reluctantly pulled away from the kiss as her lips ached at the loss of contact. The forgotten batter in the poffertjespan was sizzling and charred black as smoke rose from the substance, letting off the unpleasantly acrid smell as Laurien sighed deeply, a small smile on her face. "Oops, I think we ruined our snack."

Erik chuckled softly, bowing his forehead forwards to touch hers. "Not to worry." The smoking pan moving to the other element and out of harm's way before Erik kissed her again, her back arching as he tenderly pressed against the small of her back. "We can always set up something for tomorrow night."

 **Yup, the ending was why I had such a hard time. First time writing something like that, so please tell me if there is anything I need to improve on. I saw The Martian last week, and I implore all of you to go see this amazingly brilliant classic in the making. I bought the book the moment I heard that Sebastian Stan was going to be in it, and I was pleasantly surprised in how much I actually enjoyed the book entirely, not just Seb. Matt Damon is perfectly cast and the performances are incredible. Honestly, I cannot praise this movie enough, so go see it! Please review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys, it's me! Sorry for the long wait, this chapter was almost the death of me. Enjoy!**

Laurien felt as if she were about to take a final exam in school as she stood with her feet solidly planted on the carpet, watching Charles slowly pace the length of one of the many rooms in the mansion. Training had intensified over the past week, as recent news from the television had told them that the conflict between the Americans and the Soviets had intensified. Charles had only just informed her that morning that they were to start trying harder things for her to move with her telekinesis, proceeding further away from their usual complex exercises.

Laurien had quite enjoyed the practice of the manipulation of multiple small objects; such as several rows of coins all rolling in perfect varying clockwise and counterclockwise circles on a desktop. There was something about the meticulous repetition of the movements that seemed to calm her mind; she started to do it every night before bed, as it seemed to lull her into a deep sleep, free of the harsher nightmares.

She found herself doing it unconsciously at the dinner table the other evening, while the others were discussing Sean's recent attempt at flying that had unfortunately failed. She'd received a small nudge against her foot from Raven, who gestured at her plate, where her peas were moving at intervals about half an inch apart with every second.

Just like clockwork, she had thought, smiling to herself before stopping the vegetables in their tracks.

"All right, Laurien, can you lift that table for us?" Charles suggested as he ceased his pacing across the hardwood floor, stationing himself to her far right.

Laurien nodded, the tightness in her chest increasing with every passing moment. She slowly raised her arm, shaky fingers outstretched towards the beautifully carved table situated a few feet away by the opposing wall. Almost immediately, the smooth pulse of her power slithered coolly down the veins in her arm, gathering in her hands as she felt the presence of the table through her soft fingertips.

Taking a deep breath, she gave a small nervous twitch of her wrist and gently lifted her hand higher and higher as the table legs detached themselves from the cushion of soft maroon carpeting below. The table remained steady as it rose, despite the strengthening shake of her hand that threatened to dislodge her concentration. The tabletop soon brushed the high arching ceiling above, making her neck ache as she kept her eyes fixed on it, afraid that if she looked away, it might collapse to the ground and break into a pile of rubble.

"Excellent." Charles laughed, gazing fondly up at the hovering piece of fine furniture as he joined her by her side. "No problem at all, eh Laurien? How about we try a car next?"

"Uh, I don't have the greatest track record with cars." She admitted as she carefully lowered the table back down with a daringly quick side-glance at Charles, wincing as she remembered the colossal disaster she'd caused when they'd first met. "As you may remember."

Charles just waved it off as he headed towards the door. "That was under completely different circumstances, as this time there isn't anyone in mortal danger of being hit by a car, and I may also add that your powers have greatly improved since then. This way." He said, beckoning her to walk with him as he led her out of the room.

They quickly made their way to the front of the mansion, the bright morning light momentarily blinding Laurien as they opened the solid oak doors to be met by the chilly late September air. The leaves on the surrounding trees had morphed into a collage of breathtaking shades of yellow, red and orange, planting a strangely fascinating sense of imminent death in Laurien's mind as she passed one such tree.

It wasn't exactly the fact of an unavoidable demise that caught her eye, death was a part of life after all and it didn't bother her. What enthralled her was the way the leaves seemed to metaphorically go out with a bang. Changing in such a way and giving off such vibrant beauty before inevitably dying and falling to the ground where it would be soon covered in a blanket of white and forgotten entirely.

Her Oma had told her of such things when she was much younger, about the poetic significance of trees and its leaves, instilling a deep seated sense of fierce nostalgia in her heart as Laurien remembered when they would ride their bicycles on the path to the countryside for the day out of the city. The bicycle path had passed through the soft forest by her Oma's old house, the dying leaves all warm paint blots of color, blurring in a glorious spectrum as they rode by.

Some days they would ride through the city, the streets bustling with people, as the cheese markets were always on Fridays in Alkmaar. Laurien always had to be careful to not crash into anyone as she raced through the crowd, her Oma never too far behind. They would always get some stroopwafles to bring home to her parents, as her mother had been having serious cravings for sweets since the fourth month of her pregnancy, her belly swelling enormously as the twins grew bigger with each day.

Laurien smiled sadly as she continued following Charles around the mansion to the garage, she wondered what they were doing at that moment, Roosje and Bastijn, all the way across the world, and if they were still mad at her after all these years.

"Here we are." Charles said, pushing the garage door up to reveal a gorgeous blue 1945 Chevy truck parked between two 1946 Nash's, the names of which she surprisingly knew because of Bastijn's obsession with toy cars that had involuntarily engraved all the models in her memory.

"You want me to lift one of these?" She asked incredulously, her fingers tugging nervously at the sleeves of her navy blue sweater that matched the pigmentation of her eyes as they flitted between Charles and the cars.

"Exactly." Charles said as he put a gentle hand on her shoulder, sensing her apprehension. "I have complete and utter faith in you, Laurien. I have no doubt that you can do this, all right?"

She gave a small nod, the tightness returning to her chest again as he backed away to the side, pointing at the Chevy. "Try that one first."

She took a deep breath, the morning air stinging her lungs as she lifted her arms, hands mentally grasping at the metal frame of the truck before she pulled it towards her. The crackling sound of tires rolling over gravel met her ears as the truck moved out of the garage, careful not to scratch the neighboring cars as it went.

Once it cleared the garage door, Laurien guided it to the middle of the rocky driveway, fingers twitching as she encouraged it along. She stopped it just in front of her, feeling it staring her down like they were in a shoot out from one those western films with John Wayne.

She glanced quickly to Charles who nodded reassuringly at her before she turned back to the truck, mentally apologizing to the vehicle in case she accidentally dropped it. Flipping up her palms to face the sky, she latched onto the Chevy, biting her lip as she raised her hands slowly. She heard the groan before anything else, the metal letting out its discontent at being picked up as the frame lifted, the tires detaching from the gravelly ground.

She almost cried out in incredulity as it flew into the air, though she didn't let herself celebrate too much as she could feel the weight pulling at her consciousness as it stretched her powers. She'd never moved something that heavy before, and she felt the strain digging sharply into her veins before she decided that ten feet was high enough for today.

Laurien slowly lowered the truck, the vehicle teetering as the weight seemed to multiply on the way down. Setting it down as gently as she could, she still grimaced when she heard the crunch of the tires impacting against the ground, but Charles just chuckled as he clapped his hands together.

"Simply splendid, Laurien!" He exclaimed as he practically skipped gleefully over to her. "Tomorrow we can try for even higher, how about that? Or maybe even two cars, or three?"

"Whoa, hold your horses there, Charles." She laughed, finally allowing herself to feel the relief of her training session not ending in disaster. "One thing at a time, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but thanks anyways."

"And what's going on here?" A smooth voice emanated from behind them, and as they turned, they saw it was the metal bender just arriving from his run around the mansion.

Laurien blushed involuntarily, though almost simultaneously felt her stomach drop. Since the event in the kitchen last week, she had felt completely conflicted on the whole subject of her suddenly changed relationship with Erik. Granted, she had enjoyed the kiss, very much in fact, and reveled in the way his hands had felt against her skin, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel that something was wrong.

But even with her conflicting feelings, Laurien couldn't help but notice the way his shirt clung tightly to his solid body and the small beads of sweat on his brow just above his alluringly bright blue eyes as he neared. A sparking heat seemed to rise up her skin as her vision flashed violet, betraying her once again. She sighed inwardly, cursing at herself furiously as she tried to hide her traitorous eyes.

"Laurien has just expanded her telekinetic abilities by lifting one of the cars from the garage." Charles said, nudging her with his elbow. "And we'll see about something a little more difficult for tomorrow. Yeah?"

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it." She replied, giving him a quick forced smile.

Charles looked at her strangely for a moment, his eyes searching hers before seeming to understand her predicament. To Laurien's dismay, a small mischievous grin appeared on his face. "Erik," He announced, turning to the metal bender. "If you would be so kind to give Laurien a few tips in the art of object manipulation, considering your experience, I believe it would be of great help to you both."

Aw, jij sluwe klote wezel, she cursed at him mentally, giving Charles a dirty side glance before turning to see Erik nod, his eyes more infuriatingly enticing than ever. "Of course, it would be my pleasure."

"I'll leave you to it." Charles smirked, winking quickly at Laurien before walking in the direction of the front of the mansion.

She glared after him as he retreated, an uncomfortable wave of apprehension sparking up her neck as they were left alone. She flinched as something touched her arm, only to find that Erik had been reaching for her with his hand, his eyes soft but suddenly hesitant from her reaction. Feeling her anxiety melt away, she tentatively lifted her hand in turn, fingertips softly brushing his own as she tested the waters, soon feeling his fingers curl around her hand as he held it tenderly.

"Look," He started, as they walked towards the field, his low voice wavering so softly, that she almost missed the slight fluctuation. "About the night in the kitchen, I'm sorry if I was too forward, or-"

"No, it was fine." She reassured, squeezing his hand gently. "You were very sweet."

"I was just wondering if- uh." He stumbled, rubbing the back of his neck nervously as she looked up at him.

She smiled, amused at his uncharacteristic awkwardness. Suddenly losing all previous apprehension, she leaned in, tilting her head as she felt his breath across her lips; she gave him a small peck before drawing back as she looked in his eyes for a sign. The blue pigmentation sparkled as he advanced in his own turn. Long and slow, Laurien tugged softly at Erik's bottom lip as his hand ran down her spine, soon resting at the small of her back as he gently pulled her closer until their bodies were drawn tight against one another as they lowered themselves to the ground.

Erik placed a careful hand of her chest, laying her down on the lush grass as he straddled her waist, his weight pinning her firmly underneath him. "Are you all right?" He asked quietly, stroking her hair that had spread out in caramel tendrils across the lawn. She nodded before she gasped as his mouth found the special spot on her collarbone, making Erik smirk as he felt her body tense beneath him. "There it is." He purred, the vibrations of his voice sending shivers throughout her body.

Laurien clasped the nape of his neck, massaging it minutely with her fingertips as she pulled his lips back up to her own. As cold as the morning air still was against their flesh, sweat rolled off of Erik's brow as he kissed her soft lips. He suddenly froze, his thumb poised against her lips. "The others are coming." He murmured urgently, moving to get to his feet, before thinking better of it and giving her one last intense kiss, sending stars flying behind her eyes before lifting off of her.

"The others? How do you know?" She asked, alarm in her voice. As her body groaned inwardly at the loss of his warmth, she struggled to get up before Erik grabbed her arm and pulled her into his embrace.

He kissed the top of her head lightly before cupping her face between his hands. "Charles just told me." He said, chuckling. "He, Hank and Sean are going to try out the new suit from the top of the satellite."

Laurien raised an eyebrow as she looked off towards the dwarfing structure to their right. "Is that safe?"

"Uh, no. Not strictly speaking."

But yet, there they soon were, standing several hundred feet above the ground on the enormous satellite that stood a kilometer or two away from the mansion, with a nervous Sean wavering by the edge.

"Look, I trust you," Sean explained to Charles, hurriedly.

"I'm touched."

"But not him." He finished, pointing at Hank.

"Say nothing." Charles mumbled to the scientist as the man opened his mouth to protest.

Laurien stifled a small chuckle that was immediately sobered as she looked worriedly over the side of the satellite. "Are you quite sure about this Charles? At this height, he'd be a right pannenkoek if he hit the ground."

Erik looked up at her, a hint of amusement in his eyes as Sean panicked even more. "Pannenkoek? What's a pannenkoek? Oh, God, I'm gonna die."

"Look, you don't have to do this if you're not-" Charles started, but Erik mumbled something inaudible before unexpectedly shoving Sean from the satellite.

Charles and Laurien both cried out in alarm as they rushed towards where Sean had disappeared over the edge. Laurien whipped her hands out of her pockets to reach for him with her powers and bring him back, but Erik quickly snatched up her wrists and trapped them against his chest. "Wait a moment." He said, grinning at her wide eyes, seeming all too jolly for someone who'd just pushed a man to his death.

Suddenly a quick blur sprang up from the edge as Sean flew high into the air. Laurien watched in amazement as he reached the summit of his climb and fell back down again with a scream as the sound waves carried him along the surface of the satellite. She looked up at Erik in disbelief, his grin growing wider at her awed expression.

She punched his arm in annoyance as he laughed, feeling the corners of her mouth twitch as she tried to busy herself with watching Sean fly around the mansion. Godverdomme, Erik, she thought, you've done it again.

 **Jij sluwe klote wezel - You clever fucking weasel**

 **Pannenkoek - Pancake**

 **Stroopwafles - A sort of waffle cookie with syrup baked in the middle (my absolute favorite treat)**

 **I never realized how hard it was to be an author until I started writing this story, it is absolutely nuts! Having all these thoughts and scenarios running through my head during all hours of the day when I'm supposed to be doing work, and when I finally get the free time to be writing, I go completely blank. I have huge respect for all you writers out there. In other news, Halloween is fast approaching and I have decided to forgo the whole giving out candy and watching Netflix deal to see Crimson Peak at the nearby movie theater instead. In my full costume, I might add. So, I would like to hear what you all are going to be for Halloween, please leave a review below of what you think of the chapter and what you're dressing up as. I'm going as Maverick from Top Gun. Thanks, and hope you enjoyed!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys, I am so excited to present to you, chapter 11! Enjoy!**

Laurien was having a blissfully dreamless sleep before she awoke with a start, as what could only be described as a wild war cry erupted from the open doorway of her bedroom, followed by a weight falling onto her duvet-covered form.

"Come on, lazy bones!" A bouncy pajama clad Raven cried as she crawled around on top of Laurien, shaking her vigorously all the while. "Time to wake up!"

"No." Laurien groaned, her one syllable response almost inaudible as she shoved her face further into the comfortable refuge of her pillow.

Another weight joined Raven's, shaking the bed even further. "You're gonna miss out," Sean's voice told her, before lowering its volume to add, "There are waffles downstairs." as if it were a closely held secret.

At that very moment, as if Sean had summoned it, the delicious scent of waffles wafted into her room, filling it with all its glory. Laurien groaned again, the decision between sleep and waffles torturing her sleep addled mind into complete and utter madness, as Sean proceeded to jump on her bed.

"Come on, how about it?" Raven asked, and as Laurien turned her head to face the blonde, Raven's bottom lip jutted out in the puppy dog look that Laurien knew so well from the month they'd spent together. Even with the strength of all her rock solid conviction, Laurien couldn't help but melt every time. Good Lord, she found herself thinking time and time again, how did Charles do it?

She sighed deeply; the grand exhale of air pushing away a piece of stray caramel hair that had fallen rudely in her face. "Fine." Though as she glanced up at Raven who was perched unmoving on top of Laurien's hip, she raised an amused eyebrow. "You do realize that if I am to get up, you must get off first?"

"Oh!" Raven giggled, before lifting herself off of Laurien's body, pushing Sean from the bed mid leap so he tumbled onto the floor in a heaping mess.

"I'm all right." He called as he bounced off the ground, practically sprinting for the door and the eventual destination of waffles.

Laurien kicked off the covers, shivering as she left behind the inviting warmth of the bed. She rubbed her eyes as a yawn overtook her, prompting stars to dance before her in sporadic fashion. Raven moved about her room, picking up a photograph here or there before settling on one and turning to her. "Are these your siblings?"

Laurien padded over to her slowly to see the picture up close as she stretched. It was the one with her and her siblings holding a giant wheel of Gouda at the cheese market. She could tell that it was taken almost a week after the Easter of '53 from the band-aid on her brother's forehead. He had earned it from a run in with a tree when he lost control of his bike on the way to their aunt's for the celebration. She smiled, as she remembered how he had worn the small scrape like a badge of honor, before she nodded to Raven. "That's an old picture though, they're much older now. I don't have anything recent, we didn't take too many photos after my parents died."

"Did they come to the U.S. with you?" Raven asked, setting the photo back down gently on the shelf.

"No, they needed to finish their schooling, so they're living with family friends in Ypres." Laurien responded, choosing her words carefully. "I lost contact with them after I left for London."

Raven frowned. "Why's that?"

Laurien hesitated before opening her mouth, but was interrupted by Charles' head popping into the doorway. "Sorry to interrupt, ladies, but breakfast is getting cold, you'd both better hurry."

Raven grabbed her hand and squeezed it quickly with a smile before dashing after Charles, leaving Laurien to move back over to her bed and collapse back onto it with a satisfactory flop, her body moaning in pleasure as it eased back into the soft surface of the mattress. Her head nuzzled minutely into the duvet to give her something to hold onto before heaving herself off her comfortable cloud and towards the wardrobe.

She blindly grabbed a short-sleeved shirt and a pair of sweatpants from the drawers and put them on before padding out into the hallway in search of the bathroom, her hair getting in her eyes as she tried to beat it into submission on the way there. She quickly brushed her teeth and wrestled her long hair into a messy ponytail before the door to the bathroom swung open to reveal a disheveled looking Alex.

Over the past month, Laurien had grown to like Alex. Once you got past the tough exterior, he was a real sweetheart. It seemed like only a week ago that she walked in to the common room to find him sitting huddled in front of the television, tears streaming down his face as he watched Bambi, though when he realized that she was there, he made her promise not to tell the others.

Eyes just barely open, he stumbled forwards, rubbing his face all the while before he lifted himself onto the counter and unceremoniously placed his head against the mirror with a dull clang.

"Not a morning person, huh?" Laurien observed, an amused smile creeping up her face. He responded with an awkward side nod before almost keeling off his seat. She caught him before he could do so, impulsively turning on the tap to fill her palm with a sufficient amount of water before splashing his face with it.

"What the hell?" He sputtered, cringing as the cold water seeped through the fabric of his collar. Now fully awake, he took in the scene before narrowing his eyes at her unapologetically smirking face. "Oh, so that's how you want to play?" He reached for the still running tap and splashed her back, almost completely dousing her shirt in freezing water.

She shrieked in laughter as she tried to get away from the spray, almost slipping on the wet bathroom floor as she took cover behind a bathroom stall door. She could hear him giggling on the other side of the stall, her chest tightening with foreboding at the sound before she heard the bathroom door swing shut. Tentatively, she pushed the stall door open to find that she was alone. Frowning, she quickly filled up a glass just in case and moved towards the entrance of the bathroom creaking the door open a smidge.

Seeing no one to her left, she advanced further into the hallway, only to be snatched up around the waist and hefted over Alex's shoulder. In surprise, she retaliated by clumsily overturning the entire glass of water over his head as he spun her around the hallway, both giggling uncontrollably.

He carried her all the way to the dining room where the rest were waiting, staring wide-eyed at them, as they were both completely drenched.

"What have you two been up to?" Charles asked, unsuccessfully trying to hide his smile behind his hand.

Alex set her down none too gently, making her stumble backwards when her feet hit the ground, but she quickly regained her balance.

"Oh, nothing." Alex replied innocently, shaking his soaked head like a dog as he found his seat.

"Is this what happens when I leave you alone for two minutes?" Raven joked as she handed Laurien the plate of waffles once she'd sat down next to her.

"I guess so." She shrugged, smiling as she tried to catch her breath after all the excitement. Suddenly, an idea came to mind. "You know what? We should all have a water war outside."

Raven practically jumped out of her seat at the suggestion. "Yes! And we can use the buckets and sponges from the garage, and-"

Charles had to cut her off. "As fun as that would be, we've got a packed schedule today, so that'll just have to wait for another time."

Raven's shoulders slumped in disappointment as she pouted at her brother. "But Charles…"

"Wait," Hank piped up from the other side of Laurien. "What's going on today?"

"I'm glad you asked, Hank." Charles said rather formally, a mischievous grin appearing on his face. "Firstly, we have some more concentration training for all of you. And Alex," He turned to the blond seated at the other side of the table. "Hank will be joining us in the bunker today, he's got an idea on how to pinpoint your aim. Secondly," He seemed greatly excited to say the next few words. "I managed to find the old projector in the attic and I thought that since you all have been working so hard this past month, that we would take a night off for an outdoor movie night on the front lawn."

A clatter of excitement erupted from around the table, but through all the noise, Raven's voice raised above all the others. "Wait a second, which movie? Because I've never forgiven you for making me sit through almost two hours of The Conqueror."

Charles grinned even broader. "Not to worry, my dear, I believe I've learned from my mistake, and that's why I had Moira pick instead. So, until then," He said to the wave of laughter, rising from his seat. "We shall busy ourselves with training."

He left them to revel in their anticipation, beckoning for Erik to follow him. He gave Laurien a subtle wink before leaving his chair, causing her to remember their training session yesterday in the library.

Laurien had been itching to do some hand to hand combat, and considering she already knew that Erik could fight from their first meeting in her apartment, she thought it best to ask him first.

Erik had agreed, so they met up in the library and after Laurien moved all the tables to the side with her powers to set up a small clearing, they began.

"Are you sure about this?" Erik asked, grasping her arm before she could step onto the mat.

"What?" She said, frowning at the hand gripping her. "I'm not a china doll, Erik."

"I know that, it's just-" He sighed, she could feel the anxiety and worry rolling off of him in intense waves, and in turn, it worried her. "I'm afraid that I'll hurt you."

She couldn't decide whether to feel touched or annoyed at his words, but soon picked the latter. She grabbed the hand that held her in place, spinning around so her back was to him and pulled, flipping him over her shoulder, just as she had done the day in the apartment.

The air was pushed out of his chest from the impact, causing Erik to cough, as he lay stunned on the mat. She kneeled beside him, holding out a hand. "If you hurt me, I'll just have to hurt you back, right?"

He stared up at her, the corner of his mouth quirked up before he grabbed her hand and made to get up. Suddenly, he yanked back on her arm, catching her off guard as his foot pushed against her abdomen and used the momentum to flip her over his head. She hit the ground with a small grunt and a second later; he was on top of her.

He made to pin her down, but she promptly kicked one of his legs out from under him and used it to push him off balance before forcing him to the ground. Her knee dug into his stomach, her other leg securing his dominant hand to the mat while she grabbed his wrist and pinned it above his head.

"See?" She grinned, tapping her index finger against the subtle pulse of his wrist. "I can take you any day."

"Oh, don't get cocky yet." He warned, wiggling his hand out from under her knee and grabbing her opposing shoulder, using his bigger body to dislodge her stance and quickly pinning her the same way she'd pinned him.

"Well, shit." She sighed, as she looked down at the mess she'd gotten herself into. He chuckled, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead before letting her up and trying again.

Laurien's chest tightened at the memory and felt her cheeks redden involuntarily before she tried to busy herself with her waffle that had unfortunately gotten cold.

After she'd finished her breakfast, she excused herself and headed upstairs to her room, getting out the bag of marbles Charles had given her. She poured them out onto the floor, each of them spreading out farther and farther across the hardwood until Laurien set herself down on the bed and reached out for them with her powers. They all stood still, poised to obey her every command, just like little toy soldiers.

She started them clockwise, then counter clock wise, and every which way she could think of, moving them about in lines or rows, following the leader. Though other times, she made it look as if every single marble had a mind of its own, reminding her of civilians walking down a street in New York, some traveling faster than others, some changing their mind on where they wanted to go and going back whence they came.

She couldn't remember how long she'd been at it, only felt like a couple of minutes, but when she finally peeled herself away from the mental exercise, her clock told her that it was already half past twelve. Frowning, she threw all of the marbles back into the bag before sidling over to the bookshelf near the window. Sitting cross-legged before the selection of books, she stared undecidedly at all of the titles displayed on their spines.

She sniffed, pulling out each in turn before collapsing backwards onto the soothing hardwood to stare at the ceiling. Choosing what to read was hard, she thought, as she kicked her feet up into the air, seeing how long she could hold her position before she lost interest and let them fall to the ground with a bang. She felt like she was six years old again, stuck in her room with no one to play with when Bram and Meryl were at their piano lessons. She would lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling as she was doing now, willing her mind to imagine such wondrous places to whisk her away to in her time of need.

In the end, it was always the books that seemed to provide such hospitality. The Dutch translation of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was a special favorite, considering that she had viewed Lucy and Susan as her idols growing up. Out of sheer curiosity, she sat back up and grabbed her mangled copy, being especially careful as to not rip any pages as she opened the cover and read the first sentence. One sentence became a paragraph, which admittedly turned into a page, and some time later, she found herself flipping closed the back cover with a contented sigh as she then held the book to her chest.

After placing it back on the bookshelf, she glanced up and squinted at the scene around her as she returned to reality. Her room had grown dark from the fading rays of the sun through the window, a soft glow was visible beyond the trees before it ultimately bid its goodnight and disappeared, even though when Laurien checked the clock, she saw that it was only five o'clock. The shortening days made her feel sleepy, they always had that effect on her, though it fortunately gave her an excuse to cuddle up in her pajamas and read or watch a movie. Speaking of which, she remembered, it must have been closing in on the time for their outdoor movie night.

As if on cue, Charles' voice suddenly filled her head with its melodious lilting accent. "Laurien, would you be so kind as to help us with setting up? The projector screen is being a right pain."

"Of course." She smiled, getting up to her feet. "I'll be right there."

Once she'd reached where they were setting up, they fixed the problem in no time. With Laurien using her powers to raise the screen to cover the windows of the second floor and insert the nails, it only took ten minutes. The rest of the party showed up soon after, bearing popcorn and soft drinks, which they distributed among themselves as they nestled together with blankets on the lawn before Charles jumped to his feet.

"I'm sure you've all been wondering what film we will be showing tonight, and without further ado, I am proud to present…" He paused, the effort for dramatic effect torturing them even further. "Casablanca!"

Laurien heard Raven's sigh of relief at the same time that Sean groaned, seemingly hoping for a western or the James Bond film that had come out a week ago, but were both interrupted by the projector whirring to life as the picture appeared upon the sheet as Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman's names were displayed in the opening credits.

She looked to her side where Erik had seated himself, blanket draped loosely around his shoulders as the black and white opening titles were reflected in his wonder filled eyes. He soon noticed her looking at him, blushing noticeably as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him, sharing his pleasant warmth as he kissed her tenderly on the forehead before they both turned back to the screen as the narration started.

Laurien felt her heart swell, the last time she'd seen it was on her fourteenth birthday when they played it on their tiny television in Alkmaar. She'd only been two when it first came out, too young to go see it in theaters on the big screen in all its glory, but here she finally was, viewing it the way it was supposed to be experienced.

The popcorn quickly disappeared along with the soft drinks as the movie continued, and as Laurien pulled her eyes away from the screen to look around her, she saw that everyone was utterly captivated. There was something addicting about watching someone watch a movie, she didn't know if she felt creepy in thinking so, but she found when people were so drawn into a film, they seemed to forget who they were trying to be and just sat together in pure honesty with one another. Though as soon as the screen dims and the lights come back on, the magic was gone, so she thought it best to take this rare opportunity to witness her fellow mutants as their true selves.

Sean and Alex were huddled next to each other in their blankets as they watched the movie, looking like two brothers as Sean picked the piece of popcorn from Alex's hair and promptly ate it like a chimp as Alex grimaced comically.

On her other side, Hank seemed to be studying the events on the screen, as if he were trying to memorize what Bogart did and said as he walked around Rick's Café, his eyes flitting every other second to Raven who sat staring wide eyed up at the screen as Bergman entered the shot, her elegance owning the room. Oh, goodness, they were perfect for each other, Laurien thought, though she wondered if they knew it at all.

Charles, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found. Laurien glanced around her and towards the front doors of the mansion, but nothing. A sense of unease swept over her, before she quickly brushed it off, feeling annoyed with herself. Just couldn't stop worrying, could she? She was safe here, why couldn't she accept that?

Erik nudged her arm gently, bringing her attention back from its place of anxiety as he held out his hand to her. "May I have this dance?"

She glanced up at him, eyebrow raised in utter confusion before she looked to the screen and saw Sam at the piano playing "As Time Goes By" as Bergman sat near him, tears in her eyes as she listened to the song that meant the world to her.

Laurien felt her own eyes welling up as she nodded and took Erik's hand, letting him sweep her up from her seat and take her into his arms as the melody rang out in their ears. He moved her smoothly, gently swaying from side to side, her left hand on his shoulder as he held her waist, their free hands twining together perfectly. The other soon followed suite, Hank shyly holding Raven as she led him around, while Sean and Alex did a greatly exaggerated waltz around the other two pairs, doing deep lunges before jumping up and skipping to the right or left.

She found it hard to hold back her tears, as Erik kissed her on the cheek, soon finding a few streaming down her face as Erik looked at her with deeply caring eyes. "Laurien, darling, what's wrong?"

She giggled through her tears, laughing at her own ridiculousness as she tried to wipe them away. "Oh, no, it's nothing. I'm sorry, it's just that- God, this song brings back so many memories, it's wonderful."

"It's strange." He said, smiling sweetly as he wiped away the last tear. "How something as simple as a song can do such a miraculous thing, isn't it?"

She nodded, sniffing softly as he pulled her closer, her head resting on his chest, the beat of his heart perfectly complimenting the tune.

"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world," He quoted, wrapping his arms tightly around her and resting his chin on her head. "She walks into mine."

She let out a small laugh before burying her face into his coat, smelling the pleasant combination of cedar and coffee, wishing that she could pause this moment and live in it forever. The soft melody and words, so utterly enchanting as they continued to sway back and forth, both holding each other tightly, as if they knew that it was going to be the last time.

For as Bogart stopped the music, the moment was stopped by Charles, who came jogging from the mansion, bad news weighing on his mind as he reached them. "I've just had word from Moira," He panted, his eyes darkening as he looked at every one of them before him. "President Kennedy made his address, the Americans and the Soviets are setting up a blockade near Cuba, and this time," He paused at Erik, staring him straight in the eye as he said the condemning words. "It's worse than we ever previously imagined."

 **Dun Dun Dun! Uh oh, okay. I've got to be honest with you guys, I cried multiple times as I wrote the last half of this chapter. If you don't believe me, just read it again while listening to "As Time Goes By". God, I am so emotionally wrecked right now. Oh, man. Well, on a brighter note, Casablanca is an excellent movie, you should all make the time to see it. An absolute classic. In other news, I didn't end up seeing Crimson Peak on Halloween because it wasn't playing anymore, but I did see Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks. It was very good, I gave it a 9/10. I love Tom Hanks, especially in You've Got Mail. All right, I'm rambling, but I hope you all enjoyed, and please review! Thanks!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey, guys! Sorry it took so long, I have rewritten this chapter over and over again, and I hope this is to your liking. Caution: Darker themes**

 **I would just like to say to all of you, thank you so much for you kind words and support! And to the citizens of the countries affected by the attacks last week who might be reading this, I'd like to send my love to all of you, whether you're in Paris, Beirut, or Baghdad. The news has shaken everyone here greatly, and our thoughts are with you and the families of the victims.**

It wasn't long after Charles' announcement that they had herded themselves inside in the hopes of getting a good night's sleep before tomorrow, though they all seemed to know that none of them would get rest easily.

After saying goodnight to the rest of them, Laurien realized that she felt rather odd as Erik walked her back to her room, almost as if something were gnawing on the walls of her stomach, eating her from the inside. The feeling continued to intensify before she stopped abruptly in the middle of the hallway, pulling Erik to a halt as well as her vision clouded.

"Laurien-" Erik started, his voice concerned as he tried to get her attention.

When she didn't respond, he grabbed either side of her face to make her look at him, fear suddenly gleaming in his eyes. "Laurien, what's wrong?"

Snapping out of her reverie, blinking rapidly before remembering where she was. "What?" She asked breathlessly. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"But-" He stuttered, seeming to be at a loss for words before he grabbed her arm tightly and started to pull her back the way they came.

"What the hell?" She cried out, yanking her arm out of his grip. "What are you doing?"

"We need to go see Charles, there's something wrong with you, Laurien."

She snorted incredulously. "Well, that's pointing out the obvious, isn't it?"

"What?"

"Never mind," She said, rubbing her forehead in frustration as Erik's strange behavior started to freak her out. "What are you on about?"

"When you froze a moment ago, your eyes, they just-" He stared at her in complete and utter confusion as she stood before him, crossing her arms over her chest as she waited for him to explain himself until she started to lose her patience.

"Erik, this is really not funny. You're scaring me."

"Laurien." He urged as he grabbed her shoulders, trying to get across to her. "Your eyes turned completely white."

She shrugged. "So, I do a lot of weird things."

"So you've done that before?"

"Yeah, it's a usual occurrence. I've been doing it for years, I just space out sometimes."

She frowned as she suddenly felt the worry coming off of him in rapid waves, realizing that it was genuine concern. She grabbed his hand in hers, squeezing it gently. "Erik, I promise you that I am fine." She lifted herself on her tiptoes to kiss him before whispering against his lips. "Now let's go to bed.

He caved in from her touch, kissing her with intensity that she'd never felt before, as they disappeared into her bedroom, but nothing could interrupt the guilt that filled her heart, that she'd just lied to him. She'd never had her eyes turn white before, and she was certainly not fine. Something terrible was coming.

* * *

It started just as all the others had, with her walking down the street to the house. A few people would pass by, and even though they didn't utter a single word, their distorted looking faces said it all, causing her to quicken her pace to a run until she reached the front steps. The door swung open of its own accord, allowing her to burst into the house without obstruction. Her breaths came out in shallow puffs as she raced towards the kitchen, a subtle wheezing rising from her throat as anxiety raked its sharp fingernails across her lungs.

She stopped dead in her tracks as she entered the kitchen and looked feverishly around the room, her chest seizing uncomfortably when her eyes rested on the abandoned open cutlery drawer. She couldn't breath, foreboding was choking the air out of her as realized that the largest knife they owned was missing from its usual spot.

She backed away slowly, suddenly smelling the subtle scent of death, humid and metallic as it exhaled on the back of her neck, sending shivers up her spine. She couldn't help but notice that there was something different in the way that each of her footsteps echoed against the hardwood as she left the kitchen and headed towards the dark hallway.

Withholding her urge to call out their names, she gripped the walls of the corridor for dear life, as she seemed to know what would greet her at the end. No, she thought, please God; don't do this to me, I beg of you. The doors to their bedrooms were each cracked open a sliver, allowing a small amount of light to shine through the darkness and the same amount of hope as she continued forward.

But as she took another step, she felt something foreign seeping through the layers of her ballet flats and onto her skin. Sickeningly hot and sticky, the unknown liquid coated her toes and weighed her foot down as she tried to lift it in an attempt to see what she'd stepped in. The stench of death intensified as she brought it near her face for inspection, causing her to double over and gag as the reeking smell overwhelmed her nostrils.

Swallowing with difficulty and barely breathing, she placed her shaking fingertips against the soft painted wood of the door and pushed it open. She felt her stomach drop immediately as her eyes widened and her mouth opened to let out a scream, but no sound escaped her lips. The strength in her legs finally gave out, letting her fall to her knees in shock and stare in silent horror at the sight before her.

She didn't hear him come up behind her, not even his ragged breathing gave him away as a sharp pain erupted from her back and as she looked down, she saw the unmistakable point of the missing knife protruding from her chest as his voice hissed into her ear, before the knife was yanked out and stabbed into her side repeatedly.

"Eye for an eye, geliefde."

Laurien awoke with a strangled gasp, chest heaving mightily as her lungs strained for sweet air, She felt as if she were being suffocated, the once comforting covers had wrapped themselves unbearably tight around her, giving her the impression that they were choking her as she started struggling to get out of their hold. She kicked desperately at the duvet, but to no avail, before her hands suddenly lost their patience and ripped the fabric in half, sending goose down flying across the room.

A cry of surprise erupted from beside her, but she barely heard it as she rolled off of the bed, her body collapsing onto the freezing hardwood floor before she scrambled towards the bookshelf, trying to get herself as far away from the explosion of plumage as possible. Unfortunately, she misjudged the distance in her panicked state and crashed headfirst into the shelf, causing a number of her books to fall forward and smack her body hard as they tumbled down.

Breathing heavily, Laurien rested her head in her hands as she tried to calm herself down, but as someone else's hands grabbed her arms, a terrified shriek ripped from her mouth and she pushed whoever it was away with her powers, causing them to fly into the opposing wall with a large crash.

"Het is niet echt, it's not real." She gasped, repeating the same useless words to herself even though she knew full well that they wouldn't help one bit, as she heard a slight groan from the other side of the room.

Frustrated beyond words, she screwed up her face and slammed her head into bookshelf again, making more books fall down on her. "It's not fucking real." She growled, her fingernails digging painfully into her scalp as she started obsessively rocking back and forth.

"But it was real." A small voice reminded her from the back of her head, its tone whiny and grating to her ears.

"Shut up, I didn't ask for your fucking opinion." She spat viciously.

"It's the truth, geliefde." It persisted, elongating the last syllable of the name as its volume rose to an excruciatingly high pitch.

"Stop calling me that." Laurien hissed as she covered her ears tightly with her hands until the voice begrudgingly obeyed her, its words diminishing into a small buzzing sound.

She barely jumped at the sound of the door bursting open and hurried footsteps rapidly making their way over to her. A sudden calmness blanketed her mind before she slumped over into a heap on the ground; head lolling limply to the side as familiar gentle hands carefully lifted her and placed her sedated body down on the feather covered bed.

The low grumble of voices rang faintly in her ears as a soft blanket was placed snuggly around her. Even with all the commotion in the room, she found her mind wandering to the graves in Ypres, the ones with their names engraved into the stone. People could just walk by and let their eyes glance over the names, before moving on to the next stone without another thought on the subject. It was such a beautiful city, she thought as she felt tears coming to her eyes as whatever she was hit with started to wear off slowly. Why did she ever leave that place? She should be there, shouldn't she, buried in the ground next to them. But, no, she was so damn selfish that she couldn't even be there for her family.

She only became aware of someone calling her name when strong arms encircled her body and held her close, engulfing her with warmth and reassurance as the tears boiled over and fell down her cheeks. She buried her face into the person's chest; body jerking minutely as quiet sobs overcame her.

"Shh, it's all right, darling." A voice, which she finally recognized as Erik's, cooed delicately as he rested his chin on top of her head. "You're safe, it was just a nightmare."

"No- no, it w-wasn't." She choked out, her tremors growing even more violent by the second as felt him look up at whomever else was in the room, her vision rapidly growing darker until she lost consciousness completely.

* * *

The next morning came all too quickly for Laurien as a ray of sun tickled her eyelids when it shone through the curtains and into Erik's room. She groaned sleepily as she tried to hide from the intruding light by burying her face into the pillow before rolling over slowly in the bed and nuzzling her head into Erik's chest as it slowly rose and fell with the steady tempo of his breathing.

She almost fell back asleep before the weight of what had happened last night hit her like a brick wall. Laurien winced, feeling her puffy eyes start to well up again, but she fought them back as she slowly detached herself from Erik and carefully lifted herself up off the bed, trying her best not to wake him.

She dashed to the nearest bathroom, not caring when her feet protested as they stepped on the cold tile, before she turned on the tap and let the cool water wash over her tear stained face. She stood over the sink for who knows how long, before her legs gave way and she slid to the floor, her hands curled into fists as they clutched at the scars on her chest and rib cage. She couldn't get away, could she? Not even the fact of being on the other side of the world mattered, it would still stay with her. She couldn't escape the reminders etched on her own skin.

She angrily wiped away the few tears that had rolled down her cheeks and got to her feet, glancing momentarily at the fragile looking girl in the mirror before it shattered unexpectedly "I'm not fucking broken." She growled to herself, before leaving the bathroom to get ready.

 **I saw Spectre last weekend, and the opening scene just completely amazed me. Hopefully, I'll be seeing Mockingjay Part 2 soon as well, though I can't help but feel a little worried, still wish that they hadn't split the last book up into two films. Hope you all enjoyed, please review!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey, guys! Hope you all had a great week! I'm excited to present another chapter that was a complete pain in the ass to write, but I still enjoyed pulling my hair out. (Which is odd, believe me.) Hope you all enjoy!**

When she entered her room, Laurien swallowed guiltily as she stared unseeingly at the snowfall of goose down that erupted when she'd opened the door. A small feather fluttered down from above, resting gently on her nose before she eventually sneezed and sent it spiraling out into the hall. Laurien clawed minutely at her nose, willing the small tickle to disappear as she felt foreboding at the sensation of another sneeze coming.

She braved the cloud of feathers to put on some random clothes from the wardrobe, only to have to stop after she'd become rather flustered when she couldn't find the head hole of her shirt. After she'd taken it off, she realized that she'd been foolishly trying to put a pair of pants over her head for two whole minutes.

After hurriedly promising to herself to never utter a word of it to anyone ever, she grabbed her leather jacket and headed downstairs, hoping that she wouldn't run into Erik on her way. She felt guilty for thinking that, seeing as from what she could remember of last night, she'd thrown him across the room hard, and only because he'd tried to help. In the end, she honestly wanted to avoid having to admit what had caused the nightmare, she didn't want to deal with it today of all days, not with something as important as this.

It already didn't seem to be her lucky day, as when she turned the corner towards the stairs, she saw Erik leaving his room, now fully dressed. She started to back away, but he spotted her almost instantly. "Laurien."

She bit her lip, her anxiety growing with every footstep he took towards her. "Erik, I-"

He cut her off by grabbing her arm gently and pulling her into a deep kiss that took her completely by surprise. "When I woke up, you were gone." He purred as he stroked her face, rubbing calming circles against her skin. "I wanted to make sure that you were all right."

"If I'm all right?" She repeated incredulously. "What about you, Erik? I threw you across the room for Christ's sake!"

"I've had worse." He shrugged, his eyes darkening when he saw no change in her expression. "I'll admit that it shook me up a bit. I didn't like seeing you that way, and I doubt that I'll forget it easily, but it's all right, Laurien. No one got hurt."

"This time." She pointed out, her knuckles turning white as they anxiously grabbed at her chest. "I'm not able to distinguish the dream from reality when I'm like that." She took a deep breath, feeling the usual pain from her side twinge as she inhaled. "I'm afraid I might kill you." She whispered.

He frowned. "What would you kill in your dream? I thought it was about the fire again."

"It was." She lied, shaking her head. "Look, never mind, we'd better get going."

He looked as if he were ready to protest, but wisely decided against it and nodded, before following her down the hall.

Upon reviewing their conversation, Laurien felt something nagging at her from the back of her head, a question that needed answering. She felt completely insensitive for asking, but it had been a while since she'd asked and he'd never explained.

"Erik?" She started tentatively, feeling her stomach plummet at the very words coming out of her mouth as she looked up at him. "You once mentioned that Shaw ripped your family apart."

The inviting heat that surrounded her ceased as his eyes darkened instantly at the mention of the man's name. "Yes." He responded, his voice still gentle, but she could tell that she'd hit an obviously sore subject.

Laurien wanted to retreat almost immediately, turn back time to five seconds ago, just keep her mouth shut and prevent herself from opening an old wound, but she knew that there was no turning back now. "What happened?"

Erik stopped walking and brought Laurien to a halt with a moderate grip on her arm as he hesitated, his voice suddenly hoarse and unsteady, the weight that she'd sensed the first time she saw him was finally exposed as he uttered the four difficult words. "He killed my mother."

Laurien felt as if someone had hit her with a jolt of electricity as her vision flashed the dark shades of blue and red. A familiar feeling of anger washed over her body as something dawned in her mind, sending a barrage of sparks shooting through her veins, but she kept quiet and let him continue.

"He already knew of my powers and wanted to use me for his own means. But when I couldn't control my powers, he gave me an ultimatum, either move this coin," He murmured quietly as a single coin levitated from his pocket and placing itself lightly into the palm of her hand, the symbol of the Third Reich facing up towards her. "Or he would shoot my mother."

Laurien swallowed with difficulty, the coin bringing back flashes of some of her earliest memories in life, all the soldiers, the hunger, and the pain… She quickly tore her gaze away from the piece of metal and handed it back as if it had burned her before she looked back up at his unwavering eyes, agony so evidently engraved upon his face that it hurt her in turn.

"And I couldn't do it, so he killed her. Right in front of me." He finished before pocketing the coin.

"That's why you've been tracking him all this time." She said with care, the words rolling of her tongue slowly as she ran them through her head. "You want to kill him."

"And I'm going to." He urged, gripping her tighter. "I'm not going to let him destroy anything else. He's not going to get anywhere near you."

"I can take care of myself." Laurien reassured him, placing a gentle hand on his arm to calm him. "But I appreciate the sentiment."

She lifted herself on her tiptoes to kiss him tenderly on the lips, willing his anger and fear to disappear for now and to just breath, as she could feel the anxiety growing in his chest. He had been after this for so long, that she wondered what would happen tomorrow when it was all over. The only way she could see the coming day ending was in death, but whose?

"Come on," She whispered, feeling him calming beneath her touch. "Let's go meet the others, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No, it's all right." He said, rubbing his hands up and down her arms. "Just means that there are no more secrets between us."

She smiled back at him, and let him lead her back down the hallway, though the only thing on her mind were those ominous words; if only that were true, Erik.

* * *

Erik had forgotten something back in his room and told Laurien to go on ahead. She went down the stairs to find Charles and Moira waiting by the front doors of Hank's lab with Alex and Sean throwing punches at each other's palms for practice. Laurien gave a quick smile at the boys before walking awkwardly towards Charles, knowing that he was the only one that she could talk to about it. Her vision flashed gold as she leaned against the wall beside him, feeling his presence inside her head and breathing a sigh of relief as it meant that they could talk privately, away from Moira's prying ears.

"About last night," She started, though even the voice in her head was shaky. "I want to apologize for what happened. I-"

"You have nothing to apologize for." He said gently, sending waves of calm throughout her body. "Even the best of us have nightmares, it's nothing to be ashamed about. I just want to make sure that you're all right."

She nodded minutely before letting her heavy head tilt back and rest against the wall. "You're the only one who knows." Her mind whispered, careful not to disrupt the peace inside her head that he'd provided. "And I'd like it to stay that way."

"You have my word." He replied, smiling sadly as he held her hand tightly in his. "We can talk anytime you're ready."

"Thank you."

He gave her hand a tight squeeze before releasing her to move away and talk to a just arriving Raven at the bottom of the stairs.

Laurien almost did a double take as she spotted Raven. Having never seen her in her natural form before, the sapphire blue skin and bright red hair that contrasted beautifully against one another, it was an admittedly breathtaking experience for Laurien, making her wonder why Raven had waited until now to show them.

From what she could tell from their expressions, the siblings were not happy with one another. Raven frowned, as Charles seemed to be lecturing her about something that she obviously didn't agree with. She said something curtly to him before moving towards Laurien and the others.

"Hi." Laurien greeted as she neared. "You all right?"

"Oh, Charles is just being Charles." She said, sighing as she joined her in leaning against the wall. "He can be a little frustrating at times."

"Siblings can be very difficult." Laurien agreed. "I would know. One time, my brother got his hands on a pack of cigarettes with his friends and almost set his room on fire." She laughed, remembering how his friends had sprinted from the house after she'd found the curtains ablaze. "I have never had such a strong urge to rip someone's head off before that day."

Her laughter slowly faded away as she remembered what she'd felt when she saw the flames. It brought her right back to the night their parents had died and sent hot prickling sensations up her arms as she tried to subdue the flames.

Laurien felt bad about screaming at him the way she had, after the curtains had become a smoldering tangle of ashy fabric. It wasn't even his idea anyway, that damned kid Jesse from down the street who'd stolen the cigarettes from his mother and brought it over after school. Man, she'd really hated that kid.

She'd become so emotional after the whole ordeal that she eventually took the confiscated pack of cigarettes and had one right there on the front steps of the house. Not the strongest example of a good example, she'd thought as she let a soft puff of smoke escape her lips, but to hell with it all. There was no use in pretending that she wasn't susceptible to making as many mistakes as any other individual. She was only human.

She raised an eyebrow at the thought, as she wasn't exactly human, now was she? She'd pondered on it for a moment, but ultimately decided to desist, feeling it to be an unnecessary subject for the time being. She took a last drag of the cigarette, savoring the wonderfully acrid taste as she threw the remains to the ground and extinguishing it beneath her foot, before she heading back inside the house to deal with the mess.

Raven broke her out of her daze as she chuckled softly. "I was more the pyromaniac than Charles back in the day, though he always covered for me."

"You guys really love each other, huh?" Laurien said, a small nostalgic smile pulling at her mouth as she imagined a younger Charles Xavier and Raven lying through their teeth as they tried to look as innocent as possible in front of a disgruntled housekeeper.

"Yeah." Raven beamed as she glanced towards her brother who was greeting an approaching Erik. "We really do."

She turned back to Laurien. "So, you and Erik, last night."

Laurien froze at the mention of last night, her eyes widening as she whipped her head around to face Raven, wondering if she'd heard about the nightmare. "What about it?"

"Come on, Laurien. You have to tell me the details." Raven smirked at her, nudging her arm as she giggled. "Though I guess I probably know a lot already, considering that I sleep in the room next to yours."

Laurien went from absolute fear to complete embarrassment in a split second, as she understood what she meant before smacking her forehead with her hand. "No, no, no, no." She groaned.

"Oh, yes. Now you must tell me everything. I command it!" Raven squealed, practically jumping in excitement.

Charles saved Laurien as he called them all over to look at the sign on the door that she hadn't noticed when she walked in. The note looked like it had been written rather hurriedly, the words straight to the point and messy, traits that were not like Hank at all.

'Gone to the airbase, bring the crate marked X. Hank.'

Charles ripped the page off the door before pushing them open to show the shambles of Hank's destroyed lab. As Laurien's stomach dropped at the sight of such destruction, her troubles shooting to the back of her head as she focused her contemplation on the possibility that someone had attacked Hank during the night, without any of them knowing. She pushed the thought away, as she knew that Charles would've known if something was wrong, as he had with her.

"What the hell happened here?" Erik asked from beside her as they followed Charles towards the other side of the room where the earlier mentioned crate laid waiting. They approached the large box with caution; as in Laurien's head, it could contain anything from St. Bernard puppies to a rigged explosive, but when Charles opened the lid, he revealed several yellow jumpsuits packed neatly on top of one another.

"Hank has been busy." Erik commented as he took in the contents.

"Yep." Laurien mumbled under her breath, as she lifted one of the jumpsuits, raising an impressed eyebrow as she felt the complex fabric beneath her fingers spark a sense of security within her.

"Do we really have to wear these?" Alex complained, wincing at the weird shade of yellow.

"Well," Charles considered. "Since none of us are mutated to withstand extreme G-Force or being riddled by bullets, I suggest we suit up."

* * *

It was about an hour later that they were all standing on the tarmac of a private garage that concealed one of the strangest looking planes that Laurien had ever seen in her life. It seemed to have a quite aerodynamic design, she admitted, like something straight out of a science fiction novel she'd once read a few years back, but that in no way made her feel less nervous about flying in it. In her blunt opinion, she thought that it looked like it could be ripped apart by a particularly strong gust of wind.

She winced restlessly as she tugged on the straps of her yellow and blue jumpsuit, pulling them until they pressed uncomfortably against her body, before loosening it and starting all over again. The repetition soothed her, making her wish that she'd brought along the sack of marbles. The suit fit nicely, almost like a glove, though it made her wonder how Hank had gotten her measurements so perfectly, as she couldn't remember him ever asking. She quickly glanced to Erik who stood next to her, only to find that he was already looking at her with deeply concerned eyes.

"You good?" He asked, nudging her arm with his elbow.

"Yeah." She voiced breathlessly, her chest seizing as she tried to get her nerves under control. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Where's Hank?" Raven asked from Erik's other side, voicing what they were all thinking.

"I'm here." A voice called from the other side of the garage as footsteps echoed against the metal walls. A large dark figure walked slowly towards them before the stranger stepped out of the shadows and into the light.

"Hank?"

A furry blue feline creature stood before them, wearing the same jumpsuit as the rest of the team. Sharp claws jutted out at the ends of strong fingers and blue fur stretched across his whole body, making him only recognizable from the glasses that rested on the edge of his nose, in front of bright yellow eyes that flitted down sorrowfully to the ground, making Laurien's heart ache for him.

"It didn't attack the cells, it enhanced them." He murmured, his gaze avoiding theirs. "It didn't work."

"Yes, it did Hank." Raven said gently. "Don't you see? This is who you were meant to be. This is you." She lifted her hand to his face as he padded closer, caressing his cheek reassuringly. "No more hiding."

They looked affectionately into each other's eyes, making Laurien wonder with bated breath if this was the moment that they would finally realize their love for one another.

Her hope was extinguished abruptly as Erik's hand came up and clapped Hank on the shoulder and said the words that made her wince. "Never looked better, man."

The reaction was instantaneous. Hank grabbed Erik by the throat with his enhanced hands, and lifted him off of his feet before anyone knew what was happening.

"Hank!" Laurien gasped, using all of her self-control to keep herself from lunging forward, as Hank's claws were dangerously close to the flesh of Erik's neck.

"Don't mock me." Hank growled; his teeth bared threateningly as he snarled at a choking Erik.

"Hank, put him down immediately please." Charles commanded, his voice steady as he tried to remain calm, but when Hank didn't make a move to let go of him, he grew panicked. "Hank!"

Erik collapsed in a heap on the floor as Hank released his grip on him, gasping for air. Once he'd caught his breath, Erik looked up at the man, his eyes flashing gravely. "I wasn't." He hissed, the redness of his face ebbing away slowly as oxygen returned to him.

"Even I got to admit you look bad ass." Alex drawled, seemingly unfazed by the events around him. "I think I got a new name for you, Beast."

Laurien knelt down and helped Erik back to his feet, keeping a firm hold on his arm to make sure he didn't do any more reckless things. He glanced down at her grip on his arm before raising an eyebrow at her, making her quell the urge to roll her eyes.

"You sure you can fly this thing?" Sean wondered aloud as he stared up at the massive airplane.

"'Course I can." Hank said heatedly, his anger still in the process of subsiding. "I designed it."

"Well," Charles interrupted, a stern look telling them that it might be best for all of them to shut up. "Why don't we all file in then? Come on."

* * *

Laurien held on to her seat for dear life as the plane took another sharp turn, making her stomach churn uncomfortably. She couldn't remember how long they'd been in the death trap of an aircraft, but it felt considerably longer than the three hours that Charles had told them once they'd reached cruising altitude, the time it took to get from New York to Cuba.

She hated planes. After being accustomed to getting around by either train or bicycle in Europe for her whole life, her first flight to North America was a bumpy one indeed. The poor young man who'd had the grand misfortune of sitting beside her had a sprained hand from her holding on so tightly to him during takeoff, though he'd seemed to understand her agitation and smiled graciously when she'd offered to buy him a drink after they'd landed in Toronto. She smiled to herself, drinks that had quickly led to other activities.

She glanced over at Erik and Charles who were standing by the back of the plane around the bomb bay doors. They'd just sent Sean out to find out where Shaw was, as Erik assured them that he would be there to coax the American and the Soviets into World War Three.

She shuddered at the thought, another war might just seem like one more name on a list of conflicts for people of the future, but no one could imagine the unspeakable chaos that came with it. The torn up towns and villages, the destruction and pain that met troops wherever they went. The thing that she remembered the most of her first five years on the planet was the stench of death drifted through the streets at all hours of the day, invading their homes and burrowing deep into their skin.

As far as she knew, the war had been what had killed her parents and taken her siblings away from her. Even though the war had 'ended', as they said, there were still the visible prolonged effects everywhere you looked. She would do anything to stop it from all happening again.

"Banshee's found Shaw." Charles called, setting her heart racing even faster as she gripped her seat belt tighter, her knuckles turning white against the pressure. "You ready for this." He asked Erik as he got a strong hold on a strap from above.

"Let's find out." Erik growled before lowering himself down onto the wheel of the plane.

It seemed to be only moments later when something metallic appeared in the corner of her eye. She glanced around, only to do a double take when she saw the spinning propeller of what looked to be a submarine floating outside the windshield of the plane. Laurien stared open mouthed at the sight, prodding Alex to her right before pointing towards the front of the plane, before suddenly the plane shook violently as an insanely strong gust of wind buffeted the metal hull, causing the whole aircraft to spin out wildly. Unsure of what had happened, she desperately wanted to turn her head to where she could hear Charles yelling to her left, but she didn't dare try, the strong force of the spiraling plane making her feel as if her neck were about to snap in two.

An ear-rupturing explosion rocked the plane as a blast of fire erupted outside the windshield. The plane plummeted to the ground, causing Laurien's stomach to fall with it as she held on tightly to her seat, Alex gripping her arm in a bruising hold. The roar of noise growing louder as Charles and Erik's voices joining the clamor, until a gut wrenching crash rang through all their ears as they slammed into the beach, and suddenly, everything went completely silent.

 **Hope that wasn't too abrupt an ending! So, I love hearing from you guys, about anything really, (Tom Hanks, Movies, favorite Tom Hanks Movies, etc.) Have you all seen the new Captain America: Civil War trailer? EPIC! I am in the midst of drawing up another story that takes place in the X-Men universe, but it might be a while. Please share any suggestions or requests you'd like to see happen, I'm open to ideas. :) Please review!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hi guys! How's it going? Hope you all had a couple great weeks, and sorry this took so long. Enjoy!**

Laurien blinked as her eyes slowly focused in on the air mask hanging in front of her face, her head pounding as Alex let out soft groan to her right. She made to turn her head towards the noise, but cried out quietly as her neck throbbed painfully from the violent force of the crash. She flinched as an array of sparks exploded to her left from a broken circuit board, feeling the blood rushing to her head as the straps of her seat dug sharply into her shoulders as gravity pulled her down.

"Laurien!" She heard Erik calling her from far away, his voice echoing as if they were on either ends of a tunnel.

"Yeah?" She managed from behind gritted teeth, clasping her chest in relief as the wave of pain eventually subsided.

She felt his hand on her arm as he tried to free her from the straps, gently lowering her down to what appeared to be the top of the plane. "Are you all right?" He asked worriedly as he helped her to her feet, grabbing her arm quickly when she lost her balance and stumbled backwards.

"Never better." She joked, rubbing the back of her sore neck gingerly as she steadied herself against the dented wall of the plane. "But I am never flying again, mark my words."

After carefully undoing Alex's seat belt with her powers and helping him to get right side up, she joined the others as they crowded around the windows facing out towards the familiar mutants exiting an utterly wrecked submarine. Laurien glanced anxiously over to where Charles was staring out his window, fingers against his temple as he surveyed the minds beyond the confines of the plane.

"Shaw's somewhere in there." He said. "I can't quite touch his mind, but he's there, Erik. Beast, Havok, Poltergeist, back him up."

Poltergeist. Laurien sighed as she remembered the nickname. Honestly, she'd lied when she'd said that she liked it back when they were still at the CIA base. Every time that she ran the word through her head, she couldn't help but be reminded of the word 'upholstery', but now, she guessed that she was stuck with it.

She shrugged to herself as she moved towards the gaping hole in the hull of the plane, but was held back by a hand that had wrapped itself securely around her upper arm. "You be careful out there." Erik urged, his blue eyes serious as he gazed down at her.

"I could say the same to you." She countered, raising an uncertain eyebrow at him, wondering what was going on inside his head as she could sense intense waves of morbid excitement rolling off of him, before he pulled her in and kissed her hard on the mouth.

Her body stiffened suddenly when their lips met, his conflicting emotions overwhelming her before she broke away from him sharply. He glanced questioningly down at her, but she only shook her head. "You'd better get going." She murmured, keeping her eyes glued to the floor as she raised a hand and ripped a section of the submarine out, feeling the corner of her mouth quirk as she heard the definitive bang of the metal colliding with the blue suited mutant.

He gave her a small nod, giving her arm a quick squeeze before he released her and sprinted towards the direction of the submarine. She watched him leave with a heavy heart, grimacing as she felt something shift uncomfortably inside her.

She shook it off with difficulty before striding towards Hank and Alex out in the exposed area of the beach, joining them as they stared down the two remaining members of Shaw's brotherhood. Upon spotting the red demon of a man who stood beside Angel, Laurien had to quell the sensation of fear pulling at her chest, exchanging it with a steadfast hatred, as she remembered all the agents that the mutant had slaughtered that night at the CIA base.

Alex stepped forward, releasing a spurt of red energy from his chest at the mutants before Azazel suddenly vanished and reappeared behind them, his sharp nails narrowly missing Laurien's eye as he slashed at her face before he grabbed onto Hank and wrapped his tail tightly around Alex's neck. Quickly recovering, Laurien stretched out her arm for her powers to grab the nearest blunt item, but before she could, they had disappeared.

Rapidly feeling the warm rush of blood spill out from where he'd hit her cheekbone, she raised a hand to clutch her face; only to bring it back completely smothered in the thick red liquid. She spun around towards Angel, who was already in the air, spitting viciously at her. A wad of acid hit her shoulder, melting through the protective fabric and making contact with her skin, sending a blazing pang of agony through her skin. Cursing loudly, she latched onto Angel's belt with her powers and yanked her down towards the sand, shamefully feeling satisfaction when she heard a subtle crack when the other girl hit the ground.

Angel soon got back to her feet, clutching her right arm that was sticking out at an odd angle, before extending her wings and fluttering back to the submarine. Stubbornly, Laurien sprinted towards the broken piece of the plane that had landed on an incline towards the summit of the submarine and recklessly dashed up the narrow strip of metal, trying to reach the retreating Angel.

"Laurien!"

She gasped as Charles' urgent voice rang painfully through her head, causing her to lose her footing in her surprise and tumble off the metal beam. She fell with a hard thump onto the sand, the impact pushing all the air out of her lungs.

"What?" She wheezed, annoyance dancing on the edge of her voice as she rolled onto her stomach and lifted herself up with difficulty, her aching muscles screaming all the while. Her irritation quickly faded away as she sensed the panic plaguing the presence in her head, only to be replaced by a torrent of anxiety as she waited for his next words. When they didn't come, her stomach plummeted. "Charles, what is it?"

"Erik's in trouble, he's about to do something he'll sorely regret." He blurted out before she heard him groan, as if he were straining desperately against something, but finally, he continued, his words spilling out like water from an overturned glass. "I need you to go into the submarine and remove the helmet from his head, I can't convince him otherwise."

Laurien frowned, not completely understanding what he meant, but she nodded all the same and quickly headed towards the submarine, stepping over the man in blue as she dashed through the opening. She looked to both sides of the inside hull, before following the trail of doors wrenched off of their hinges, assuming that they were left that way in Erik wake.

As she entered what seemed to be a lounge, she slowed to a stop as she stared at her surroundings, seeing absolutely no one but herself in the reflection of the mirror to her left. "Charles, there's no one here." She stated plainly, confusion and frustration rising in her chest as she wondered if this was some sort of trick.

"They're in a room hidden behind the far wall." He said quickly, desperation rising tumultuously in his voice with each passing word. "Please, Laurien, hurry!"

She gritted her teeth and grabbed onto the wall with her powers, tearing at the heavy layers savagely until she saw the faintest hints of a blue hued room. Breathing heavily and without a moment to lose, she sprinted forward and threw her body into the remaining few parts of the wall as it gave way, crashing into whoever was on the other side as they fell into a dusty heap on the floor.

Laurien groaned as she felt her shoulder spark up in pain from the impact, before coughing arduously as small particles from the wall entered her lungs and threatened to choke her. "Klote." She managed through gritted teeth as she popped her shoulder back into place with her powers. Today was just not her day.

She noticed something in the corner of her eye and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Shaw standing still to her left with an outstretched arm raised before him. Wondering just what the hell had been going on, a small noise to her right reminded her of her mission and she quickly rolled onto her stomach and lifted herself onto the figure, effectively pinning him beneath her. She saw the familiar glint of Erik's steely blue eyes from behind the shadow of the helmet, but as his lips parted in an effort to say her name, her hands gripped the helmet before she ripped it off of his head. She gasped as she was suddenly jerked backwards by the metal of her jumpsuit and thrown across the room.

Laurien slammed into the broken wall and collapsed onto the ground, wincing as she landed in a large pile of shattered glass, as with each movement, she could feel the sharp twinge as each of the pieces slid against her skin.

"Laurien…" Erik breathed as he got to his feet, the soft gleam of sweat on his forehead mixing with blood from the wound just below his hairline. "What have you done?"

"I just saved your stomme ezel from doing something you'll regret." She grumbled bitterly as she bit her lip hard when she shifted the position of her body, feeling a shard of glass sticking shallowly into her stomach as she struggled to get up.

"Laurien, give it back." He said, each syllable icier than the last as he moved towards her, but he stopped when she retreated sharply away from him, her back slamming into the smooth surface of the mirror behind her.

"I can't give this to you." She whispered, unconsciously tightening her bloody grip on the helmet. "I can't let you do this, Erik. You need to talk to Charles and sort this out."

He frowned at the mention of his friend's name. "So, this is Charles' doing." He advanced daringly, making her extend her hand towards him as she felt the icy pulsation of her powers in her veins heighten with every threatening step that he took.

"Stop, this isn't you." She pleaded, holding the helmet tightly against her stomach as she willed Charles to arrive and take control. "Please, just take a step back. Killing this man won't bring you or your mother peace."

"That's what our dear old Charles said as well." Erik snarled, his lip curling menacingly. "But what would you two know about revenge? Have you ever seen someone you loved being ripped away right in front of you?"

She stared at him, her hands curling into fists as she tried to subdue the angry tears that threatened to spill over. He had no idea what she'd seen, what she'd felt, the pain that she'd endured over the years, but then again, she knew the monstrous temptation that overtook you when you were standing in front of the person you'd wanted dead for years, and how it was too strong to resist, but she at least had to try.

"Well?" He challenged again.

"Yes, I do." Laurien choked out, her chest seizing agonizingly as the familiar flashes of red burned against her eyes. "I swear, Erik, I do. I have done this all before, the whole revenge spiel,"

"And I can tell you that it doesn't surmount to anything." She continued, gesturing to Shaw with a grimace. "This has become a piece of you after all these years and nothing can replace it after it's done. You've spent your whole life looking for him and you might feel redeemed if you finally kill him today, but I can assure you that you'll be looking for someone else to fill his spot tomorrow."

He stared at Shaw's limp body with conflicted eyes before he looked over to her, his steely stare slowly morphing into a morose gaze that made her heart ache as he nodded sorrowfully. "You're probably right." He whispered, a single tear streaming down his face as she felt her feet unconsciously carrying her over to him.

She raised her free hand to the side of his face, wiping away the tears as he had just yesterday evening as they danced to the soundtrack of Casablanca, before his forehead bent down to rest gently against hers.

"I'm sorry." He murmured as his fingers softly moved a strand of her caramel hair behind her ear. "But I have to, and you've left me no choice."

Her eyes widened as he suddenly raised his hand, summoning a large beam from above that smashed unexpectedly into her side. She was sent flying into an adjoining mirror by the metal beam and collapsed to the ground in a shower of broken glass. She cried out loudly as she heard the collective medley of snapping bones and felt the intense fire clawing up her ribcage.

Laurien gasped for air as the pain grew exponentially from the multiple pieces of the mirror protruding from her rapidly bruising skin. She barely felt the hand caressing her cheek or the helmet being removed from her grip as Erik knelt down beside her. "Oh, darling, I didn't want to hurt you," He purred, as he placed the helmet back on his head. "But you should know better than to get in my way."

She flinched away from his touch, staring wide eyed up at the man who had, only just last night, held her tightly against his chest and whispered soft comforting words in her ear as he warded off a nightmare, though all she saw before her now was a terrifying imitation of the cruel man who stood frozen to her left.

Erik frowned down at her, before getting to his feet, the coin rising up with him. "This is what I've been waiting to do since I was just fourteen." He murmured as the piece of metal wove between his fingers. "And now you'll be able to witness it with me."

Laurien tried to reach out towards him with her powers, only to find a wall blocking her mind as a flash of red pierced through her head. She bit back a shriek of terror as Dan's face suddenly appeared before her eyes, the pain from her side bringing back the reminder of that kitchen knife stabbing repeatedly through her side.

She glanced up at Erik through the haze, wide eyes helplessly following the coin as it drifted closer and closer to the statue that was Sebastian Shaw. "Erik, stop!" She screamed as she clutched her side, the flashes of red growing even more intense to the point where she could clearly see their bodies laying in the pools of blood.

He ignored her, his face stoic as the coin finally met Shaw's forehead and embedded itself into his skin. Laurien heard the shuddering crack of the piece of metal forcing its way through the man's skull and into his frontal lobe. The coin soon floated out from the other side of the man's head, caked in blood and brain matter, before it dropped in front of Laurien, spinning round in circles until it fell with the bloody symbol facing up.

"I'll see you in the new world, darling." Erik said, before wrapping two strips of metal around Shaw's wrists and levitating him in the position of a crucifixion. He ripped the wall of the submarine off with a loud groan of metal as he moved Shaw out into the sunshine outside, before he too left.

Laurien stared after him in unbelieving shock, before her head fell back with a crunch from the glass littered floor; her side feeling like it was bursting into flame as she tried to move. The pain felt like it was too much, but the most agonizing part was the images that continued to spark before her eyes, reminding her of her previous deadly failure from a few years ago.

Pushing the thought away as she felt her strength returning to her as the cloud of red slowly disappeared along with the haunting images, she gritted her teeth hard and was about to try to get up again when she heard the sound of running footsteps from the hole leading to the lounge and before she knew it, Charles was in the doorway.

"Oh my God." He gasped before rushing to her side and grasping her hand tightly in his. "Laurien, are you all right?"

"What took you so long?" She groaned, trying to keep her voice as light the best she could as she felt tears coming to her eyes when another bout of agony overtook her.

"Where are you hurt?"

"Ribs, most likely." She ground out, almost crying out as she slowly got to her feet and steadied herself against Charles

Charles looked her over quickly with tired eyes, his hand hovering unsurely over her body before he grabbed her face in his hands. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea that he was going to do this."

"None of us did." She replied, grasping his wrist reassuringly as she felt the guilt rolling off of him. She winced as he guided her towards the other side of the submarine; every step ripping the breath from her lungs as the movement jostled her ribs before the pain suddenly ebbed away.

She opened her mouth in surprise, but Charles interrupted her. "I can take away the pain temporarily, but believe me when I say that it's going to hurt like hell later."

She nodded, just grateful that she could get some relief for the time being with Charles' help. She could hear Erik's voice booming from outside the submarine, loud for all the mutants to hear.

"Today, our fighting stops."

"Oh, klote." She groaned, allowing herself a little bit of a bitter smirk as she wondered whether he was really going to do the whole embarrassing 'speech on a soap box' act.

"Take off your blinders, brothers and sisters. The real enemy is out there." He declared, pointing out to where the ships lay waiting in the distance. "I feel their guns moving in the water, their metal targeting us. Americans, Soviets, humans, united in their fear of the unknown."

"The Neanderthal is running scared, my fellow mutants." He stopped when he saw Charles walk towards him, beckoning him with a small twitch of the wrist. "Go ahead, Charles. Tell me I'm wrong."

Charles looked back at Laurien, foreboding deeply set in his eyes as he turned towards the battle ships and raised his fingers to his temple. After a moment, he turned to Moira and nodded solemnly, prompting her to disappear into the ruins of the airplane.

Suddenly, a soft boom erupted from the ships, then another followed, and before long, the recognizable whistling of missiles could be heard hurtling towards them, from Soviet and American ship alike. Laurien swallowed with difficulty, the pain slowly seeping back into her bloodstream as Charles' presence faded, though in her mind, it didn't quite matter, she wouldn't be hurting for much longer it seemed. She might even see Roosje and Bastijn; she thought, feeling utterly conflicted as she saw the missiles nearing rapidly, though suddenly wishing that it wouldn't all end like this.

The missiles came unbearably close before Erik suddenly raised his hand, halting the explosives dead in their path and with a slow rotation of his hand; the missiles turned around and pointed straight back at the military ships.

"Erik, you said yourself, we're the better men. This is the time to prove it." Charles pleaded from beside Erik. "There are thousands of men on those ships, good, honest, innocent men. They're just following orders."

"I've been at the mercy of men just following orders." Erik said, as he turned to face him, soft venom lacing the edges of the condemning words. "Never again."

 **So... The X-Men: Apocalypse trailer came out a couple of days ago... I flipped out. I got really excited, but then after watching it a couple of times, I got really sad, and I have no idea why, because it looks completely epic. Magneto just breaks my heart in the trailer. May 27th 2016 cannot come soon enough. So there weren't a lot of reviews after the last chapter, and I'm just wondering if I should continue. Please let me know and tell me what you think, and leave a review. Thanks!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey, you guys! I am very sorry it took so long, almost a month (AHHH!) but I am very thankful for all of your lovely reviews, they really got me back to writing when I was in the middle of a bit of a difficult time mentally. Thank you all very much again, and here is the next chapter!**

Once Erik's hand stretched toward the sky, pushing the missiles into the sky before they angled themselves at the many military ships that awaited their fate with bated breath. Laurien blinked unseeingly as time seemed to slow to a snail's pace, with the explosives moving inch by inch as Charles' panicked voice rang eerily in her ears.

"Erik, release them!" He yelled, hands curling into tight fists when Erik didn't budge. Laurien shook her head slowly with disgust, clenching her jaw unconsciously as she felt the sensation of intense power emitting from the man, as pungent as the strongest cologne imaginable. She knew full well that he wasn't going to give up this opportunity. Not when he was still riding the high of his revenge.

She took a step forward, each breath more painful than the last as she tried to muster up the courage to do something. What that something was, she didn't know, but anything to get his concentration off of the missiles would do the trick.

Suddenly, a strong arm wrapped tight around her waist and yanked hard into her side to pull her back. Fire clawed up her ribcage and invaded her lungs with a subtle popping sound as she cried out in pain. Whoever had grabbed her released her instantly, letting her collapse to the ground in a heap as she dug her nails deep into her arm to cope with the agonizing sensation, creating large gouges in the sleeves of her jumpsuit.

Her chest heaved mightily as she gasped for air, but found that she could only grasp small wisps of oxygen before it escaped through a bloody hole in her suit.

"Klote." She managed angrily between shuddering breaths, clamping her hand carefully over the gaping wound before she looked up to see Erik glance back at her at her cry, mixed fear and concern embedded in his steely blue eyes, before Charles took advantage of the distraction and charged at him. A sharp cry was ripped from his lips before he caught him around the middle and dragged the other man to the ground in a tangle of yellow and blue limbs.

Laurien saw the missiles plummet the moment Charles had tackled Erik, spiraling down towards the ocean surface while others collided with one another and exploded in mid air. She grimaced as she saw the power of the destructive beasts that had been meant for them only a few seconds ago.

Erik grunted loudly when his back hit the sand, drawing her attention back to the fight as Charles took the opportunity to get his hands on the helmet. Realizing what he was doing, Erik tried to roll away from him, but Charles yanked him back sharply, his fingers fumbling over the smooth metal around Erik's head.

"I don't want to hurt you." Erik growled under his breath before slamming his elbow into Charles' jaw. "So don't make me."

Charles fell heavily to the side, clutching his face with a gloved hand as Erik gained the upper hand and straddled the smaller man. She noticed the other mutants make to move towards them in the corner of her eye, but before they could get more than a few feet, Erik extended a hand towards them.

"Stand back!" He commanded, sending the boys flying back towards the ruins of the airplane, notably leaving Raven and Laurien untouched.

Raven dashed over to Laurien the best she could with her noticeable limp and grabbed onto her arm as if her life depended on it. "You all right?" She fretted, staring wide-eyed at the blood-sputtering wound.

Laurien suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to break down laughing at the complete ridiculousness of their situation at that very moment. If someone had told her a few months ago that she'd be wearing a blue and yellow jumpsuit on a beach in Cuba, surrounded by the wreckage of a futuristic airplane and a submarine while the entire American and Soviet navy sat watching in the distance, she would have run away as fast as she possibly could.

But her bitter amusement was quickly replaced with something strangely familiar as she saw Erik's hand stretched out towards the ships where a decent amount of missiles were still airborne while his other was wrapped tightly around Charles' throat. She glanced quickly up at Raven, who stood frozen in place and met her gaze with wide yellow eyes, before putting on a brave face, which was the complete opposite of what she felt so very intensely at that moment. "It's just a punctured lung." She mumbled, getting to her feet with difficulty as she brushed off Raven worrying hands. "I've had one before. I can handle it."

Laurien gritted her teeth, pushing down the pain until she felt herself go numb, before she summoned enough reckless abandon to fuel her and sprinted towards where Erik was pinning Charles to the ground. As time suddenly sped up, she slammed her entire body weight into him. The vicious impact pushed him off of the smaller man and sent him tumbling towards the shallow lapping waves of the ocean as Laurien fell to the side with a ragged outtake of breath.

She recovered quickly, getting to her feet with an angry snarl and wound up before kicking Erik solidly in the stomach when he tried to get up, knowing that she had to keep him incapacitated for as long as it took for the last missile to fall below the waves of the ocean. He stumbled back into the water, sputtering when he accidentally swallowed a mouthful of saltwater when his head sank beneath the surface.

When he resurfaced, Laurien's heart seemed to stop, as she saw that Erik's face had suddenly been replaced with Dan's, staring at her knowingly, the way he had through the window as he waited for her to come up the stairs and face him for the last time. She stared down at him with terrified blue eyes, chest burning as she had ceased breathing. She finally managed to take a shuddering breath before she clenched her fist, allowing the threatening red wave to engulf her and numb her entire body before she launched herself at him.

Someone cried out behind her as the bombs spun out of control and exploded in the distance, but the sounds of the blasts were all white noise to her as she grabbed the collar of his jumpsuit and threw her fist repeatedly into what she could see of his face. Droplets of blood slowly stained the emerald waters around her as the skin over her knuckles split open from her blows partly connecting with the helmet, but she didn't notice the flecks sparking from her hand, she was completely numb in rage.

Whatever this sensation was, felt something akin to her insides being filled with boiling water, Laurien hadn't felt it for quite some time. Everything hurt, but it felt wonderful, she thought hazily, as she heard an animalistic growl growing in her chest and her blood coursing heatedly through her veins like wildfire, only to spray the ocean foam around her.

Though through the anger and betrayal that clouded her eyes, she felt something suddenly pull her out of the fog. Her fist froze an inch from his face and she stared unseeingly at the man in her grasp, her chest heaving mightily from the heat of the sun bearing down on her and exertion of fighting, which only upset her ribs and lungs further.

Erik face stared back at her with unwavering steely blue eyes; a subtle look of surprise and blazing pride burned within them before a wave of guilt radiated off him as he suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward, brutally digging his fingers into her bloody side.

Laurien screamed as the previously numbed pain slammed back into her in full force. She ripped her wrist out of his grip and backed away from him as fast as she could, tripping over her feet and falling heavily into the water.

The noise tuned out as her head fell beneath the waves, her eyes stinging painfully from the assault of salt water. She burst to the surface, gasping for air as her lungs and side ached from the vicious pressure of Erik fingers into her wound.

She barely noticed him getting to his feet and raising his hand to take control of the remaining few missiles, letting them continue on their course to destruction. The pain was indescribable, her eyes screwed up tight as she choked in her effort for her breath, but found only emptiness.

Laurien flinched when she heard the unmistakable metallic bangs of bullets being fired unbearably close to her. She curled in on herself, sinking beneath the surface of the water and shielded her head from the shots before the explosive sounds suddenly died out.

She resurfaced, wondering who had been shooting before she glanced up at Erik, only to find him staring back towards the shore of the beach with a horrified expression etched on his face. She followed his gaze, eyes searching, before they rested on Charles and she raised a hand to cover her mouth. Charles back was arched unnaturally in pain before he collapsed face first onto the ground, hand clutching his back where a spurt of blood emerged from behind his fingers and splattered over the golden sand.

Erik was quickly by his side, rolling him over and seemingly pulling something from his back. "I'm so sorry." He said, cradling Charles' body against him, salt water dripping from his soaked suit and onto the telepath.

"I said back off!" Erik yelled savagely when Alex, Sean, Hank and Raven took a few steps towards them.

"You." He growled at Moira, who, to Laurien shock, was holding a gun in her hand. "You did this."

Laurien's mind raced as she stared wide-eyed at the gun, wondering whether she had shot Charles accidentally or… Her thoughts faded away when she saw Moira clutching her throat, as her dog tags had tightened around her neck, choking her.

"Please." Charles pleaded with Erik, who was seemingly the cause of Moira's distress. "She didn't do this, Erik. You did."

Erik glanced down at him, angry tears in his eyes as he slowly lowered his hand and released his hold on the CIA agent. Moira collapsed to her knees, gasping and coughing as her necklace loosened.

The two men quietly conversed as Laurien watched breathlessly from the shallow waters of the ocean, waiting for a wave of pain to subside before she got to her feet with difficulty. She groaned in frustration when she felt a sharp twinge in her chest, wishing that she could just rip out her lungs and be done with the pain, because honestly, after all these years, she was sick of it.

She trudged to the shore, stopping short when she saw Erik glance quickly at her before looking back down at Charles and closing his eyes slowly, as if he were surrendering to some inner demon. He beckoned Moira over to him and gently passed Charles over to her before getting to his feet and addressing the rest of them.

"This society won't accept us," He pointed at Charles and Moira. "So we form our own. The humans have played their hand, now we get ready to play ours."

"Who's with me?" He stared them all down individually, before letting his gaze rest on Laurien, making her stomach squirm uncomfortably as she unconsciously touched the wound on her side, letting the pain remind her of what he'd done to her to get what he wanted.

He raised a hand towards her, but she only stared tiredly at it, hearing the subtle rattle of her breath before she shook her head. His eyes fell as he saw her gesture, blinking quickly to hide his disappointment as he slowly moved his hand to face Raven instead, twisting the knife in Laurien's heart even further.

"No more hiding." He murmured just loud enough for her to hear.

Raven limped toward him, before diverting her course to bring her to Charles instead. Laurien felt a small swell of hope that she might stay before it was crushed when Raven bid Charles goodbye with a quick kiss on his forehead and took Erik's hand.

Shaw's former brotherhood soon joined them, holding each other's hands in a line, ready to leave, before Raven called over to Hank. "And Beast, never forget." She said, her yellow eyes sparkling in the sunlight. "Mutant and proud."

And then they were gone.

 **Gah, it's done. Well, at least this part. I'm excited for the next couple of chapters because it means that I get to have a bit more creative license with what happens next and that I don't really have to keep any movie events in mind until the storyline reaches DOFP. So, anyways, have you all seen Star War: The Force Awakens yet? I've seen it twice already! I believe that I have a major crush on everyone in the movie, so I can't quite decide on who's my favorite, but Rey, Finn and Poe are at the top of my list. (Of course!) Merry late Christmas and even later New Years, by the way! Thanks again, guys!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hiya! Hope you guys had a great couple of weeks, and sorry about this taking so long. I know at the start I said that I would be updating every week, but I quickly realized that it is much harder than it seems. Yup, I've been busy getting ready for exams, but I managed to get this done while procrastinating from studying for my finals, so there is a silver lining! I hope you guys enjoy!**

As soon as the brotherhood had vanished in a flash of wispy red vapors, Laurien joined the others as they all rushed over to where Moira sat with Charles' rigid body cradled in her trembling arms, her breath hitching as her nightmares came to life before her.

"I- I wasn't thinking. I didn't mean to." Moira said to her, the words tumbling out of her mouth gradually reaching a high pitch until they're almost inaudible.

"It's all right." Laurien told her stiffly even though she knew that it most certainly was a lie, her hand hovering uncertainly over the CIA agent's arm as she struggled to figure out what to do to calm her before giving up entirely. "It wasn't your fault."

"She's right, Moira." Charles says, sounding completely strained and terse as he tried to keep his voice as steady as he can, tears streaming down his pale face. "This was Erik's doing."

Laurien flinched minutely at the mention of his name before shaking it off, cursing herself mentally with all the nasty words that she knew before reaching over and laying a gentle hand on Charles' forehead.

The moment her fingers touch his cold skin, a jolt of electricity suddenly sparked in her head and she snatched back her hand with a gasp. She glanced at Charles in alarm, only to be met with an apologetic look from his bright blue eyes before they shut tightly in pain.

"He's getting clammy, Hank." Laurien said tentatively, still not taking her eyes off of Charles. "He might be going into shock."

"We need to get him to a hospital quickly." Hank said, as she saw him nod hurriedly in the corner of her eye. "And Laurien, I-"

"We're screwed." Sean interrupted loudly from where he sat cradling his visibly dislocated shoulder, talking to no one in particular as he stared unseeingly at the sand in front of him. "We're stranded in the middle of nowhere, with injuries galore, and our rides are destroyed. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the whole fucking American and Soviet navy is staring at us from afar after just trying to kill us! We're dead!"

"Shut up, you idiot! We're not going to die here." Alex shouted at him before turning to the others and whispering, "We're going to die here." Prompting Laurien to roll her eyes at them both.

"Alex, Sean, you're not helping. Could you two just-" She growled, before quickly stopping herself as she felt something rising uncomfortably in her stomach, her vision blurring as sweat dripped down her brow from the sun beating down mercilessly on them. "Never mind. Moira, can you alert the fleet on the plane's radio?"

Moira nodded quickly, but when she went to move, her knee accidentally knocked into Charles' shoulder, causing him to let out a sharp cry of pain that frightened them all to the core.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, Charles!" Moira exclaimed as one of Charles' hand clawed blindly into the sand before the pain subsided and he laid still.

"Help me up." He demanded, trying to roll over onto his side before falling back with another shout.

"Wait!" Hank urged. "Charles, don't move."

"I- I can't" Charles managed from behind gritted teeth, his face screwed up in agony as his words made Laurien's heart stop. Before she can come to any conclusions, his hand suddenly clamped down on her bare wrist and almost overwhelmed her with a shock wave that electrified her entire body.

Laurien gasped in surprise at the reaction that was coursing through her veins as it hit her with full force again, only causing her to choke on the sudden intake of air and keel over onto the sand.

She desperately tried to steady herself with both hands planted firmly in front of her, as the coughs that ensue violently wrack through her. Her chest heaved arduously as it tried to keep up the airflow to her lungs that she demanded with each shallow attempt to breathe. Her airflow was suddenly cut off as a thickly metallic substance worked its way up her throat and splattered onto the sand like little red firework explosions.

She flinched when hands grab at her, suddenly fearful that Dan had returned to finish her off, but the hands only rubbed soothing circles on her back as a gentle voice cooed softly in her ear. She slowly lifted her head up, misguided hope sparking inside her chest as blood seeped down her chin, expecting to see Erik beside her, but instead, she saw an oddly familiar looking young woman sitting crossed legged at her side in what appeared to be Charles' study back at the mansion.

Laurien took in her surroundings, her eyes darting around the room in confusion, as she feared that the red man had come back and transported her to the mansion.

"What the hell?" She mouthed, panic rising rapidly in her chest as she looked for Azazel, before her gaze rested on the woman. Short wavy auburn hair dusted her shoulders lightly as the woman smiled sadly back at her, dark red lips pulling back to reveal a perfect set of teeth. She had a heavy black jacket over her shoulders and a thick blue scarf wrapped loosely around her neck, and as Laurien quickly looked past her, she saw small specks of icy particles floating down outside the window of Charles' study.

Laurien frowned at the lady, who only looked to be a couple of years older than her, wondering why she was there. A sudden sensation stirred within her as she finally laid eyes on the woman's mismatched gaze and noticed that one of her eyes was a familiar light blue while the other was a bright hazel.

"I'm sorry." The woman told her, diverting Laurien's attention to her hands as she placed a simple silver ring in her palm and closed the younger woman's fingers around it, a single tear rolling down from her one blue eye. She suddenly released her soft hold on Laurien, and her and the ring in her fist began fading away as the beach slowly returned to her.

Laurien tried to call out to her, but found that her words were stuck in her blood-clogged throat. Fog drifted in over her eyes until she quickly found that she couldn't see at all, before she heard Charles' pain filled voice cut through the darkness like a knife and ring in her ears. "I can't feel my legs."

* * *

A harsh ray of light peaked through the curtains of Laurien's hospital window, making her wince as it rudely hit her eye. She made to turn away from the intrusive light, but abruptly stopped herself as a nasty twinge twisted her side. She opened her eyes slowly and glanced down bitterly at the bandaged mountain that surrounded the tube that stuck out of her skin, before following the trail to where it led to a large container to her right.

She groaned inwardly as she saw how much watery pinkish fluid was being drained through it, before almost jumping out of her skin as she suddenly became aware of the blue mound in one of the visitor's chairs by the side of her bed.

"Jesus Christ- ouch!" Her exclamation of surprise abruptly turned into a yelp of pain as she accidentally hit the tube with her elbow, waking Hank from his slumber.

"You're awake!" He stated excitedly, quickly sitting up straight in his seat before prodding a snoozing Alex who retaliated by smacking him hard in the face.

Hank growled and shoved Alex out of his chair and onto the floor, which prompted the blond to get to his feet with his hands curled into fists before he noticed that Laurien was staring at him, an unimpressed look plain on her face. His hands slackened and he smiled, before dashing out of the room, only to return a moment later with a quite smitten nurse.

The next day, a good-natured looking fellow with a head of short prematurely graying hair called Doctor Fisher came in to check on her. He'd thankfully explained her condition before hurrying away at the sight of Hank.

According to the others, Hank had barely left her side since they'd arrived yesterday evening at whatever hospital the military had dropped them off at. Hank told her the name after she'd woken up, but with all the painkillers she was on, it was a miracle that she could remember her own birthday. Though even with the painkillers, she could still feel the guilt coming off of him in waves as he tried to avoid her eyes. It turned out that when he had tried to stop her from going forward, one of his claws had dug into her side, consequentially breaking the skin and pushing a broken rib into her lung.

Doctor Fisher had told her that the air from her punctured lung had escaped into the pleural space, what he had explained to be the tiny area between her lung and her chest cavity.

"It's a pneumothorax, dear." Doctor Fisher had stated simply, seemingly hiding behind his chart, all the while taking quick glances at a somber Hank who was trying to busy himself with the paper.

After Fisher had left, Laurien reached over to Hank and clumsily grabbed one of his large soft hands in her own drunken pair. "You need to stop blaming yourself, Hank." She said kindly. "I've already told you that it wasn't your fault."

"I know." He murmured, finally meeting her gaze. "It's just that… I might have killed you if we hadn't gotten here when we did." He sighed, looking out the window that showed the front of the hospital and taking note of an ambulance that was dropping off someone who was bleeding severely from the neck. "I've been thinking about the chain of events, a ripple effect, as if each incident directly affected the others… I don't know if you know what I mean, but-"

Laurien knew exactly what he meant, considering that ever since she'd woken up, she had been stuck in the hospital bed with nothing else to do but babble incoherently about random things while she rode her drug induced high or ruminate over what had happened and how she could have stopped it as the pain slowly ebbed back.

The dominoes fell where they may that day. What Laurien gathered from Hank was that he felt if he hadn't grabbed Laurien and accidentally punctured her lung with her already broken ribs, then Erik wouldn't have been able to overpower her by using her wound to his advantage during their fight in the water. If she hadn't failed and had just kept him out of reach of the missiles, then Moira wouldn't have shot at him, and Erik wouldn't have deflected the bullet into Charles' back.

Though Laurien saw it more as if she had been able to stop Erik from putting that damned helmet on his head, then none of it would have happened and, in the end, Charles would've been able to feel his legs on that beach.

They hadn't let them see Charles since they had wheeled him in for surgery when they'd reached the hospital and no matter how hard Sean and Alex looked, they couldn't find him. Over the next couple of days, Laurien had lost count of how many times she had asked the nurses and doctors that passed through if they could see him, but she was only met with resounding no's. It was getting to the point that Alex had asked Hank to try growling at one of the doctors to see if that would work.

Alex and Sean were both itching to get out of the confines of the hospital though with Alex's ankle bound tightly in a cast and Sean's arm in a sling, there wasn't much that they could do besides keeping Laurien company.

"Man, this blows. I want to be back in New York." Sean drawls from across the room after the third day of being in the hospital, his words slightly distorted as he mashed on a massive piece of chewing gum that he had managed to charm off of a young nurse in their ward. "Florida's too hot."

Laurien had to agree with him there. Even with it being the middle of October, the temperature was still in the mid twenties, or late seventies, as the Americans said. She grimaced as she felt the thin sheets sticking to her sweat soaked skin before reaching for her glass of water on the side table where one of Hank's discarded newspapers laid.

There had been nothing about them in the paper, only the bolded title of "Khrushchev Offers to Scrap Cuba Bases." and "Kennedy Calls 'Statesmanlike Decision' Aid to Peace" on the front page of the New York Herald Tribune. They'd covered it up, she'd thought, all of it. She honestly wouldn't have been surprised if she heard that the government had threatened all the soldiers on the battleships into keeping their mouths shut about what they'd witnessed of the event.

From what Hank, Alex and Sean had told her since she woke up, they'd been picked up by some of the Americans. The mutants been treated like prisoners when they'd been boarded onto the ships, surrounded by men that gripped their guns a little tighter with every move the mutants made.

They'd been airlifted to Florida, though she couldn't remember a thing of the trip, she didn't even remember passing out, just crowding around Charles on the beach and then suddenly waking up in the hospital room a few days ago with a rather large tube sticking out of her.

She'd had a pneumothorax before in her lifetime, though it was still two times too many. She was anxious to get out of bed and walk around a bit to see if she could find Charles on her own, as she couldn't help but play out every scenario in her head of what had happened to him, but she knew what had to come beforehand.

The removal of the tube was nothing to look forward to, ever since she'd undergone her first time, she'd shudder violently when odd little things reminded her of the sensation as the doctor would pull it out, such as an earthworm being tugged out of the ground by the beak of a crow. When Doctor Fisher came back in the next day, holding a large needle and thread, she felt the sudden urge to jump out of the bed and make a run for it, though she knew that she wouldn't make it all that far, not while still being attached to the damn lung juice vacuum, as Sean called it.

Laurien lifted both arms above her head as was standard protocol and tried to calm herself down as she avoided looking at the thick needle that Fisher was preparing. Her breaths became rapid and shallow, not at all what she was told to do to help her lungs, as she squeezed her eyes shut and urged herself to quell the anxiety within.

A soft warm hand encased hers making her eyes snapped open before she glanced up to see Hank squeeze it reassuringly. She couldn't help but flash a quick smile as a warm sensation spread throughout her cheeks.

"All right, dear. Are you ready?" Fisher asked as steadily as he could, glancing quickly at Hank's sharp claws before turning back to her.

Laurien tightened her grip on Hank's hand and nodded, waiting as Fisher peeled away the layers upon layers of bandages and cut the stitches holding the tube in place.

"Take a slow breath and then hold it, please." The doctor said as he wiggled the tube around a bit, being extra careful as to not jostle any of her recently set ribs.

She breathed in deeply and held it, the anticipation killing her as she waited with tightly shut eyes, before he finally pulled the long coil of tubing out in one swift and very slimy motion. A soft whimper escaped her lips as a sharp stinging sensation sparked throughout her chest. Her ears were minutely aware of Hank's growls as the pain slowly, but surely, subsided into bearableness until it redoubled again, even stronger than before, as Fisher cleaned the wound with what felt like acid burning through her skin.

"Fuck!" She ground out between gritted teeth, not seeing or caring about Fisher's stern look of disapproval at her language as he quickly sewed the hole together, the thread pulling at the small folds of her skin like a puppeteer with a marionette.

"All right then." Fisher said as cheerfully as he could after he had stretched new dressings over the wound. "I'll be checking on you in about an hour."

"Thank you." Laurien managed politely, forcing a quick smile as he left before adding another small obscene word under her breath.

"You all right?" Hank asked warmly as he fidgeted in his chair and reached for something behind him.

"Mmmhmm." She hummed in response, sighing as Hank passed her a few painkillers. "Ah, you're a darling."

She swallowed all of them in one big gulp before trying to swing her legs over the side of her bed. Hank stopped her with a large hand on her shoulder, his heavy heart bleeding out clearly in his yellow eyes.

"Please, Hank." Laurien pleaded, grabbing onto his furry wrist tightly with one of her hands as the other was planted firmly into the bed to keep her from falling over.

"Tomorrow." He murmured. "Just let the stitches settle for a couple of hours and then we can go see if we can find him."

She nodded dejectedly, wincing as a particularly deep breath pulled on her stitches before challenging him to a game of Contract Rummy.

 **So that was Chapter 16. Wow, it's hard to realize that we're at chapter 16 already! Time just flies. In recent news, I have taken it upon myself to see as many Oscar Isaac movies as possible after seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens. So far, I have seen Inside Llewyn Davis, Ex Machina, The Two Faces of January, Robin Hood, The Bourne Legacy, and parts of In Secret and A Most Violent Year. I also saw Attack the Block starring John Boyega, and was pleasantly surprised. It had heart, I loved all of the characters and I even shrieked when those gorilla/bear aliens were tearing people apart. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of John Boyega and love seeing actually realistic looking aliens that have glow in the dark teeth. (I know it sounds weird, but it works!) They gave me nightmares, but it was all worth it. :) Thank goodness for Netflix. Hope you guys enjoyed, please leave a review! Thanks!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hiya! Sorry this took so long, but I'm afraid that it has become a habit. I've been having some difficulty getting back into writing, because I find myself rather absorbed in watching mindless hours of Youtube videos. It's been a couple of difficult weeks, I had a major cold that hit me right before my exams, so that was very interesting. So anyway, here's chapter 17. Hope you all enjoy!**

Laurien found herself dreaming of the woman that night.

The woman with her wavy auburn locks that were swept across her shoulders by a soft blast of winter wind that seeped into the study by the open window behind her. The white light of the snow outside bathed her in an angelic glow that contrasted beautifully with the gentle flames of her hair.

The way she sat, and the way she held herself, with her back straight, but not unnaturally so, just casually proper, she reminded Laurien of Princess Beatrix. Though in how she was positioned, cross-legged with the glow behind her and the shadow across her face, it was almost like she was the subject in an old photograph found as a bookmark in one of the works of Sylvia Plath.

Though it was always her eyes that Laurien constantly came back to. The hazel pigmented one would pulsate with energy and heat while the icy blue one emitted a soft mellow expression of smoothness, like the blade of a skate cutting gracefully through the ice on a December's dawn.

The woman sat where she had before, on the comfortable carpet of Charles' study, but this time she had Laurien tightly embraced in her arms. Her scent, a mixture of mint and old books, was entirely intoxicating as it enveloped Laurien, reminding her of her mother's hugs and fondness for cuddling.

She held the woman tightly, not wanting the embrace to cease, but she soon had to let go. The woman held her at arms length, her crimson lips lifting at the edges in a sad smile.

"I'm sorry, darling." She murmured, pushing a strand of Laurien's hair behind her ear. "But I can't stay here."

Laurien wanted to ask why not? Who was she? What was she doing in Charles' study? Why did she feel like she recognized her? She had so many questions, but no words ever came out of her mouth. They were still stuck in her throat.

Suddenly, a horribly pained expression appeared on the woman's face. Her eyes screwed up in agony as she held her head in her hands, her nails digging deep into her scalp as she tried to ward off the pain. Laurien watched in silent horror as the woman let out a piercing scream before something burst out of her forehead in a spray of blood and brain matter. The woman slumped to the floor, thick red liquid spilling out of her and inundated around a shiny object. Laurien reached down, feeling the burn of the metal against her skin as she picked up the blood smeared object and found herself staring down at Erik's coin.

* * *

Laurien woke with a start, her eyes wide and watery as she bit back a cry of pain. Her breath came out in short gasps; her chest feeling like it was aflame as she clutched at the thick mound of gauze that covered her newborn stitches. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she glanced around for the bottle of painkillers, almost letting out a sigh of relief when she finally found it resting on the table. She stretched out her free arm for it, but found that it was just out of reach, the tips of her fingernail just able to scrape against the transparent orange exterior. With desperation rising rapidly in her burning chest, she gritted her teeth and lunged forward. She finally managed to wrap her fingers around the bottle, though not without tumbling out of the bed and meeting the unnaturally warm hospital floor with a dull smack.

A large pang blossomed throughout her body, but it was still nothing compared to what she felt in her chest. She groaned quietly before scrambling to open up the bottle, her sluggish finger fumbled over the childproof cap, but she eventually managed to pop it open. Not wasting any time whatsoever, she hurriedly crammed two pills into her mouth and swallowed them dry. Laurien gasped as another wave of pain engulfed her, having to bite down on her fist to keep herself from screaming. It soon passed, leaving her lying still on the ground, as she tried to calm herself down.

She busied herself by letting her eyes explore the underneath of her bed, her pupils following the wavy curve of the metal beneath the mattress. It was nothing interesting, goodness knows, but it was the only part of the room that she hadn't already had the opportunity to stare down from her, until recently, permanent spot on the hospital bed. Her breathing soon slowed, though there was nothing to help slow her heart that felt as if it were about to jump out of her chest.

She'd seen the woman again, Laurien remembered as the memory, of what had happened before she'd passed out on the beach, came streaming back into her recollection. Something had happened when Charles had touched her, she thought, though what that was, she hadn't the slightest clue. Something for Charles to answer, wherever he was.

And then there was the matter of Erik's coin, though the thought sent a coarse shiver up her spine, and she pushed it away. Angrily, she wiped away her tears and rolled onto her good side, managing to get her poor neglected leg beneath her before standing upright with a small groan.

"Ouch." Laurien whispered as she rubbed the sore spot on her behind where it had hit the floor and would surely have a bright purple bruise later. She winced as the weight of the nightmare hit her again and she shook her head to rid herself of the images that seemed to be burning into her mind. She glanced over to where Hank slept in his usual chair, surprised that she hadn't woken him up with all her raucous noise. A small smile reluctantly tugged at her lips when she saw his nose twitch minutely as he snored silently, his white sharp teeth just visible from behind his blue lips.

Sighing, she went to put the bottle in her pocket, only to realize that she hadn't any to put it in. It was only yesterday evening that Laurien had convinced one of the nurses to smuggle a pair of scrubs to her after an unfortunate incident that occurred when she was finally allowed to walk around the room earlier in the day.

"Nice ass you got there, Laur." Alex had drawled as Sean giggled beside him, causing Laurien to spin around and back into the wall as she tried to draw the hospital gown tighter around her, face reddening rapidly.

"Why thank you." She had said, as stoically as she could muster without bursting into a fit of embarrassed laughter as she awkwardly scooted herself back over to her bed and tucked herself in to avoid any more 'tom foolery', as her scandalized mother would have said in this situation.

Laurien tried to stifle a smile as she secured the bottle in the waistband of her blue scrubs and carefully opened the door leading out into the hallway. She acknowledged that Hank had said that they would search for Charles tomorrow or today, as Laurien couldn't tell from the dark hue of her room as to what time it was, but she was wide awake and with the promise of the morphine kicking in any time, she was quite ready for something to take her mind off of her inner demons for a while.

She crept out into the hallway, narrowing her eyes into thin slits as the fluorescent glare from the hanging lights above assaulted her, leaving a magenta smudge to cloud her vision until she adjusted. She started her search by following a red line that was painted on the ground, tracking its movements until it abruptly stopped. Laurien glanced up, finding herself in a completely unfamiliar part of the hospital. It was then when it dawned on her that she hadn't taken the precaution to check what her room number was. Her heart started to beat faster in panic, but a second later, the morphine finally kicked in and she found that it didn't seem to matter anymore, so she picked another color and continued on her not so merry way.

She didn't much like hospitals, Laurien remembered, frowning as she got distracted and started to follow a tired looking nurse around the halls. Hospitals were always either too cold or too hot, never in between, a fact that had bothered Laurien for years. She thought about asking the nurse why that was, but then quickly scurried behind a stray food cart when she started to turn around.

"I know that you're there." The nurse called flatly, her voice dripping with exhaustion, as the sound of her heels quickly grew closer to the point where they were standing in front of a crouching Laurien who then promptly fell back onto her bruised behind.

As she glanced guiltily up at the woman, she did a double take, not sure if it was the painkillers fooling her mind or if her eyes actually beheld one of the most beautiful women that she had ever seen. The bronzed woman stood with a calloused hand on her hip, her shoulders sagging with the weight of the heavy day. Her round face was speckled with freckles along her cheeks and nose that were tickled by soft strands of wild light curly hair as her deep brown eyes stared down with disapproval before quickly turning to tired amusement as Laurien gawked up at her with wide midnight blue irises.

"You're very beautiful." Laurien whispered, still gazing up at the woman before she suddenly realized that she'd said it out loud and blushed profusely as she got to her feet. "Sorry."

The nurse raised an eyebrow as a small smile appeared on her lips. "Oh, no worries. That's very kind of you." She said, before looking pointedly down at her scrubs. "Do you work here? I haven't seen you around before."

Laurien almost snorted for some unconscious reason, but quickly restrained herself. "Nah, I'm just a patient." She stated, extending her hand shyly. "I'm Laurien."

The nurse took it, her skin blissfully soft and cool against Laurien's, despite the heat. "Nice to meet you, Laurien. I'm Camille."

Laurien then smiled, causing her vision to suddenly turn gold, causing Camille to back away in surprise. "You're one of the- Um." She tried hesitantly, nervously pushing a strand of hair out of her eyes as she tried to put a word to it. "The people that-"

"We're called mutants." Laurien finished for her, suddenly sobering up as a strange sensation pulsed through her body and made her chest seize up tightly, eliciting a grunt of discomfort before it passed. "We do weird stuff." She said, instantly wanting to kick herself as the words came out of her mouth. She honestly couldn't have said anything intelligent, could she?

Camille nodded minutely, and Laurien felt her heart fall as she sensed the fear in the woman before her. She let out a slow rattling breath that she hadn't noticed that she'd been holding and bowed her head, trying to put her hands in her pockets, only to remember yet again in utter frustration that she hadn't any.

"Well, I should probably be getting back to my room." She said, giving the nurse a quick smile before slowly starting to move back down the hall.

"Wait!" Camille called from behind her. "Don't you want to see your friend?"

Laurien froze before spinning around on her heels and rushing back to her. "You know where Charles is?"

"Yeah." She said, grinning as her cheek reddened. "He's one of my patients. Quite charming." She then frowned. "You've been here almost a week and you haven't seen him yet?"

"No, the doctors and nurses wouldn't even let me out of bed, let alone see him." Laurien stated defensively, feeling as if Camille was accusing her of neglecting her friend. "Besides, my other friends haven't been able to find him either."

Camille shook her head slowly, as if contemplating something. "That shouldn't have happened. I asked the other nurses to bring you down to see him." Laurien opened her mouth to ask what she meant, but before she could, Camille grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hall. "Well, he's been asking about you all ever since he woke up. Come on, I'll show you where he is."

Camille led her to a partially hidden door on the ground floor of the hospital, where two military looking guards stood in front of it. Laurien had to stop herself from shrinking away at the sight of them, but with Camille holding her hand, it gave her the strength she needed.

"Excuse us." Camille said kindly, though Laurien could sense her dislike of the two men in front of them.

The taller of the two moved into her path, blocking her from the door. "This one doesn't have clearance." He stated, pointing the handle of his gun at Laurien, who scowled up at him, annoyance threatening to change her eyes.

"She has clearance if I say she has clearance." Camille said dangerously, her mouth set in a thin line. "Or do I have to talk to your superiors about the reason why we couldn't help our patients in there."

Laurien smirked as she felt a spark of fear come from the guard who glanced at his comrade uncertainly, before shuffling out of the way.

"Thank you." Camille said tersely, before opening the door. Laurien followed after Camille in awe as she disappeared through the doorway and into large dimly lit hallway that seemed to stretch on into oblivion.

"How did you do that?" She asked once the door had closed behind them.

"Oh, it probably has something to do with the fact that I'm actually engaged to be married to their superior officer." She explained, a small smirk making its way onto her face. "And also because I don't take flack from anyone."

"Here we are." She said, motioning to a door to their left. "I'll be right outside, to leave you two alone."

Laurien thanked her before turning the handle and pushing the heavy door open a smidge, peaking in nervously. She suddenly wanted to turn back and return to her room, feeling as if she wasn't at all ready, but with a small nod from Camille, she entered the room.

Laurien padded forward lightly on her bare feet, her fingers trailing nervously along the bottom of her shirt as her eyes flickered across the surface of the curtain wall that surrounded the lone bed in the hospital room.

She reached out to the curtain, but then her hand stopped abruptly as the memory of Charles' pained face flashed before her eyes, causing her breaths to become shallow and strained as the subtle hum of the machines on the other side rose to an echoing roar in her ears.

"Laurien." A mercifully familiar voice called, breaking her out of her pained state.

She swept the curtain aside and let out a shuddering breath as tears came rushing to her eyes when she saw Charles in the hospital bed, his face pale and gaunt but his blue eyes still bright as ever. His face lit up when he spotted her, and he beckoned her over with an outstretched hand.

Her eyes flickered over to where his legs were covered by a thin white sheet before she grasped his hand, her knees buckling as a million emotions slammed into her all at once. She fought the urge to sob as the dam broke and tears washed down her cheeks. Charles smiled fondly at her, holding her hand to his face as she tried and miserably failed to keep herself in check.

"I'm sorry, Charles." She cried, burying her face into the mattress as she wept. "I'm so sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for, darling." He whispered gently as he held onto her trembling arm.

"But, I- I could've fought harder, I-" She stuttered, but soon found herself incapable of speech as horribly violent sobs overtook her.

"Come here." He said, helping her up the best he could and having her lie down next to him on the bed, her head resting on his chest as he stroked her straggly hair with his pale fingers. "I'm glad you came."

She hiccupped, irritation rising to the surface as she found her voice. "This is ridiculous." She said shaking her head. "I should be comforting you, not the other way around."

He chuckled. "It's all right, Laurien. If we're being completely honest, I've gotten a little tired of everyone doting on me, it's a nice change of pace to comfort someone else."

She nodded, though not quite believing him. "Does it hurt?" She asked hesitantly, silently hoping that she wasn't being insensitive.

"A bit." He admitted. "But I can get through it."

Laurien heard his breath hitch as he said it, and she tightened her grip on his hand, willing for him to feel how much she cared for him before she opened up her mouth again. "What have the doctors said?"

His chest lifted her head as he took a deep breath, the beats of his heart growing quicker as he came closer to telling her what she already seemed to know. "They're not hopeful for a full recovery."

She closed her eyes, letting the words sink in through the tidal wave that tried to push them out. She didn't want it to be true, any of it. "I'm sorry."

He didn't say anything for a long time after that, he held her for what felt like an eternity until he finally broke the silence.

"You and the others will be going home tomorrow."

She frowned, panic rising within her as she sat up. "And what about you?"

"I'll follow shortly." He said, pushing a strand of hair away from her face.

The simple movement suddenly reminded her of what she wanted to ask him, but when she opened her mouth, the door interrupted her as it opened unexpectedly and Camille's head peaked in.

"Sorry to interrupt, but it's time to go, Laurien."

Laurien got out of the bed reluctantly, but not before kissing Charles lightly on the forehead. "I'll try and sneak in tomorrow before we leave." She whispered quietly into his ear. He nodded, watching after her as she slipped through the doorway and disappeared.

Laurien waited until she had made it back into her room and bid Camille a thank you and goodbye, before breaking down into tears again as she remembered the unbearable sadness that had been coming off Charles in tsunami sized waves when she had left.

 **Gah, I suck at dialogue, so I hope you'll all forgive me for that. A little heads up, the woman will most likely become a big part of the story... Maybe. Anywho, who's looking forward to seeing all the new superhero movies that are coming out? I can't wait for Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, and CA: Civil War. And also on a completely different note, you should all see When Harry met Sally. I went on a movie binge when I was sick, so it was a lot of romantic comedies, Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford. Hope you all enjoyed the latest chapter and I look forward to some constructive criticism from you all. Please review!  
**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hello everyone! I'm so excited to present the next chapter of Remembrance, and I'm also glad that I was able to write it in a day, which probably means that I really need to get out more… Anywho, I hope you enjoy!**

 **Also: Big shout out to my helper debatable-cerealkiller who was very kind in supplying me with the proper translations of certain Dutch words! Because I was using Google Translate up until now. Thank you so much!  
**

Laurien wasn't able to see Charles again before they left the next morning. Several government agents had filed her hospital room the very moment she'd awoken and ushered her and the boys off to the nearest airport and after an anxiety inducing three-hour flight, they finally arrived back in New York. They managed to shake off their government tails in the airport, that were no doubt entrusted in following them to the mansion, they got into a taxi and started off towards Charles' property.

They'd sat in uncomfortable silence the whole way, with the cab driver looking nervously at Hank every now and then as the blue scientist sat uncomfortably in the passenger's seat. Sean slept in the middle with his head resting lazily on an unimpressed looking Alex's shoulder as Laurien stared unseeingly out the window at the American countryside, all the while paying no mind to the soft snores from the other side of the cab as she thought about Darwin and how he'd mentioned in passing that he'd driven a taxi.

Laurien was relieved when she finally spotted the black iron gate in front them, and almost jumped out of the car before it had even stopped moving. After paying the driver, they waited until he'd left before attempting to climb over the stone wall. Hank had made it over fine, but it was the matter of Alex having a broken ankle, Sean with a previously dislocated shoulder and Laurien not allowed to do any strenuous activity that might rip her stitches that barred their passage.

"Well, this is great." Alex muttered as they all looked up at where Hank sat perched on the top of the wall. "Are we just going to wait until the Professor gets back?"

"I could try breaking the chain." Laurien suggested, seriously doubting that she could even perform such a feat.

Hank shrugged. "It's worth a shot. It's either that or Alex slicing it open, and I don't think the Professor will appreciate a smoldering gate when he arrives."

Laurien sidled over to where the thick chain laid, wrapped several times around the pair of bars, and grabbed it with her powers, looking for the weakest link before trying to separate the iron with her powers. The metal groaned and squeaked, but refused to break, leaving Laurien stumped and exhausted.

"It's sad that we know exactly who we need in this situation." Sean said from where he sat in the grass to the side, munching on a bag of peanuts he'd swiped from the plane.

Laurien and Alex gave each other a quick look of exasperation before she moved out of the way and he blasted it, creating a large whole that they were able to squeeze through and continue on their way to the mansion.

They all gave a collective sigh when they finally stepped through the front doors of the mansion, though all the while, Laurien tugged anxiously at the bottom of her new dress shirt she'd been supplied with before leaving the hospital. The baby blue chemise was tight and stiff and the fabric chafed roughly against her skin, making her fingers itch to take it off, so much so, that the moment she got into her room, she ripped it off as quickly as the buttons would allow her, and let it to fall to the wooden floor. She silently groaned, as her skin was able to breathe properly, before she grabbed a purple sweater from one of the drawers and pulled it over her head, reveling in its soft touch as it hugged her body.

She turned to gather up the discarded shirt, only to have her heart jump into her throat when she caught a figure in the corner of her eye. She would have cried out in surprise if it were not for the strong hand that was clamped over her mouth as she was pushed back into the wall with a large thump. She let out a muffled cry of pain as fiery sparks exploded through her ribcage before she grabbed onto the wrist of the hand that was gagging her, her nails digging into the skin as she struggled against the hold on her. She tried to hit the solid figure that was crushing her against the wall, only to have her free hand snatched up and pinned behind her back as she was shushed by a painfully familiar voice.

She stilled, and glanced up to see Erik's blue eyes gazing down at her apologetically, looking the same as he had the night of the outdoor movie, the night before everything went to hell. After a few moments of her silence, he started to lessen his grip on her mouth, but with a loud knock on the bedroom door, he tightened it, making Laurien's lips throb with the immense pressure.

"Laur?" Alex's voice floated through the thick oak door, making Laurien's chest ache in mixed relief and horror. "Laur, are you all right? We heard a bang."

She let out a faint sound from beneath Erik's hand, as her instincts screaming at her to resume fighting and call out to Alex, but for some unknown reason, she stopped herself.

"Tell him that it's all right." Erik murmured softly, his hot breath ghosting over her face, waiting for her small nod before he slowly dragged his fingers away from over her mouth.

"I'm fine, Alex." She called hoarsely, avoiding Erik's gaze. "A book just slipped through my fingers, that's all."

"Okay, dinner should be ready in a few minutes. That is if Sean hasn't managed to burn the pasta." He said tiredly before his footsteps soon faded away, leaving Laurien and Erik pressed up against the wall of her bedroom in uncomfortable silence.

"Hi." She whispered, not sure what else she could say as their eyes met again.

"Hi." He replied, a small smile curling his lips as he started to lean down to kiss her. She panicked and stopped him with a gentle hand against his lips.

"We can't do this." She said quietly, turning her head to the side.

He frowned. "Why not? What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" She repeated, her voice getting high in exasperation. "Do you remember nothing of what happened last week?"

He looked down at her, his hand coming up to touch her face gently. She flinched as his fingers ran over the bumpy railroad of stitches across her cheek where Azazel had cut her deeply with his claws, before a labored breath released itself from his lungs.

"You should see the ones you gave me." She whispered, wincing, as she hadn't meant for it to come out that way.

His eyebrows furrowed above his darkening eyes, as a strong wave of guilt bled off of him, giving Laurien an unwanted dose of satisfaction that burned through her veins.

He opened his mouth, but said nothing, as his words were stuck in his throat.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, bitterly pursing her lips to get the feeling back in them.

He sighed, gently grabbing her hand and holding it against his chest. "I just needed to see you."

"Well," She shrugged, not knowing what else to say as previously unknown anger started to rise within her. "You've seen me."

He shook his head, his grip on her hand tightening. "Laurien, I-"

"Just please go." She said tersely, before pulling herself away from him and walking towards the door when Erik suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her back, only for Laurien to punch him hard in the mouth.

He staggered back, releasing her as he clutched his mouth and groaned softly. "I guess I deserved that." He mumbled, causing Laurien's anger to boil over.

"Of course you do, you bastard!" She cried, throwing her arms up in the air. "And you deserve much worse than that, believe me."

"Keep your voice down, please." He pleaded, his eyes nervously darting towards where Laurien was edging closer to the door. "Look, I know I can't take back what I did." Erik admitted, taking a cautious step towards her. "I made a mistake, and I'm so sorry, Laurien. I never meant to hurt you and Charles. I just-"

"Just shut up, Erik. I don't want to hear it." She spat back at him, her hands curling into fists. "Besides, I'm not the one that you should really be apologizing to here."

He sighed, running a hand over his tired face. "I have already made my peace with Charles on the beach. The bullet didn't hit anything life threatening, he'll be back up in a week or so I expect."

And with that, Laurien couldn't handle it any longer. She strode forward and grabbed him by the throat, pushing him back until he hit the wall as he gripped her wrist in alarm. "The bullet hit his spine, you selfish prick! You paralyzed him for life and he'll never walk again!" She yelled, her whole body shaking with uncontrollable rage that had been building ever since he turned up. "When I visited him in the hospital, Erik, and the emotions that were coming off of him were so fucking overwhelming. His best friend crippled him, took his sister away from him and then left him to die. He's so agonizingly depressed that I wanted to kill myself after feeling what he felt. Do you really honestly think that you've made your peace?"

Erik's eyes widened, fear and anguish spreading across his face as the information registered in his head. He sank to the ground, slipping out of Laurien's grip as she slowly backed away, raising a trembling hand to her mouth as she suddenly realized the immense weight of what she had just said. Multiple footsteps were heard running down the hallway on the other side of the door before it swung open as Hank, Alex and Sean stumbled in.

Alex quickly pulled Laurien behind him and out of harm's way as they watched Hank advance threateningly when he laid eyes on the shock stricken metal bender cowering across the room. Hank turned to her, his yellow eyes flashing. "Did he hurt you?"

"No." She said, only partially feeling like she was telling the truth. "He was just leaving. I'm sure his new friends will be here soon to pick him up."

Erik looked over at her with hard unseeing eyes, his hand rubbing his throat where she had gripped him so tightly that there were surely to be bruises later. She shook her head at him, fighting down the urge to apologize or hurl something his way at the same time, before she turned away and heard the tell tale sound of Azazel appearing and disappearing from her room as she headed down the hallway and towards nowhere in particular.

 **Much shorter chapter than I'm used to, but I'll try to make it up to you all in the next chapter. There were many different ways that the scene could have gone, a lot of them involved people just yelling at each other, so I tried to tone it down a bit. Um, I admit that it is actually a lot harder to have free range of the storyline, and it is rather exhausting to find something to fill up ten years of open space. I was wondering if it would be a major faux-pas to have chapters take place either a few months or a few years apart? Would it disrupt the story or would it make it flow better? Please let me know, your feedback is very important. In other news, I was able to see Deadpool today, (or yesterday, it's actually past midnight here as I'm writing this.) And all I can really say is WOW. I was giggling, but I guess the lady a few rows down in the theatre enjoyed it even more, she was practically cackling and I don't blame her, it was raunchy and funny. Though I cringed when I realized that there were some kids under the age of ten there. Ahhhh! Okay, so thank you all, I hope you enjoyed and hopefully I'll have another chapter in a week or two. Thanks!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hiya, sorry this took so long, I've just been stuck in a rut and a difficult semester at school. :( Thank you so much for all your support, it's been really helpful! Hope you all enjoy!**

Charles came home a few weeks later, Laurien couldn't be sure how many, for time seemed to pass in a dark mass of nothingness until he arrived, but she knew that it was long enough that Hank had only just taken out her stitches the day before. She'd lied on Hank's workbench in the lab with her purple sweater, which she'd been wearing ever since Erik's visit, and had strategically raised just above her ribcage for Hank to do his work. She revealed the thick line of pink puckered skin that stretched tightly across her still bruised side as she watched Hank carefully snip away the knotted threads that bound the layers together and pull them delicately from her.

"How does it feel?" He asked, talking for the first time since she'd settled down on the bench, as he tossed the discarded pieces into the trash bin to his right after he had finished.

"Good, thanks." Laurien said, running her fingers lightly over the rippled skin before wincing as she pressed on a particularly tender patch. "Just twinges a little bit every now and then."

"It's normal." He stated as he put away his tools in the drawers of his desk.

She swung her legs over the side and sat gingerly on the bench as she pulled down the sweater over her stomach. "Have you ever gotten stitches before?"

"Yeah." Hank replied, a small smirk creeping up on his face. "I got into a bit of an unwanted scrap with some of my fellow classmates at my old school, and they busted my lip up. Took a couple of stitches to patch me up."

"Ouch."

He raised a furry eyebrow in agreement before swiveling around and propelling himself on the wheels of his chair towards an oddly shaped mound that was hidden beneath a large white sheet. Laurien followed him, curiosity tugging her feet forward as she heard Hank muttering under his breath until he realized that she was next to him.

"I was meaning to show you a couple of days ago, but the circuits accidentally shorted out and I-" His voice cut out as she felt a wave of embarrassment and frustration wash over him, his mouth twitching as his explanation itched to get out.

"You?" Laurien prodded kindly, placing a tentative hand on his shoulder to reassure him.

He sighed and finally caved underneath her soft touch. "I can't rewire the circuits. My hands," He said, his claws unconsciously flexing where they were clasped together on his lap. "They're too big. I can't fit them into the panel to fix it."

She frowned. "How did you get the wires in there in the first place then?"

"I just took it from a piece of old electric scrap, I didn't actually have to do any major adjustments inside it, but now that it shorted, I need to get in there. Can you help me?" He asked, his eyes flittering towards where her hand was placed on his shoulder. "They look tiny enough."

"Hey!" She exclaimed in mock offense as she clutched her hands to her chest playfully. "They are average, for your information."

Hank chuckled. "Fine. Can you get your average hands into the panel and fix this for me, please?"

Laurien joined in his laughter, suddenly realizing how much she'd missed it, the whole laughing thing. After the past weeks of her only allowing herself to give faint smiles and quiet conversations with the others, it felt strange to feel the small joyous spasm that ran throughout her entire body as she giggled.

"All right, what have you been working on here?" She said, gesturing towards the mysterious lump in front of them.

Before she could say another word, Hank enthusiastically pulled off the sheet to reveal a futuristic looking shiny wheelchair that was polished with a light grey finish that reminded Laurien of the robot from Metropolis. With so much to look at, she found her eyes to be quite overwhelmed until they finally rested where the chair was embraced by two large wheels on either side with spokes in the shape of Xs.

"Wow." She whispered breathlessly, before tentatively taking a few steps forward, coming close enough to place her hand against the smooth texture of the arm of the chair. The moment she touched it, a strong wave of iciness gripped her as the cold of the metal seeped through her skin and sunk into her bones, making her fight desperately to quell a frighteningly strong shiver that threatened to overtake her.

"Do you think Charles will like it?" Hank asked hesitantly, his blue claws fiddling anxiously with a screwdriver as he waited for her feedback.

"Um, yes." She managed, suddenly remembering herself and her surroundings. "Maybe not what it symbolizes for him, but I'm sure that he'll definitely appreciate the kind thought and effort that went into it."

Hank nodded solemnly, understanding what she meant as he quickly showed her what she needed to do to fix the wiring.

"Hank," She asked a few minutes later with her hands inside the panel as she was getting close to fixing the second to last wire. She was met with a small grunt from across the lab which she took as acknowledgement. "Do you think that we should build a sort of ramp?"

His yellow eyes popped up from behind a table at her confusedly. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean that Charles has to have some sort of way to get to the higher levels of the mansion. We can't honestly expect him to be content to just stay on the ground floor, it would be like being a prisoner in your own home, not being able to go where you want."

"You're right." Hank said, his voice drifting to her ears as an echo rebounding off of the walls. "But with the slope of the stairs being that steep, I doubt that there would be any possible or even safe way to get the wheelchair moving up that drastic of an incline, even if it's electric."

She frowned; searching her head for an answer until one finally came to her. "An elevator then."

"That could work, but how would we install it?"

"I don't quite know," She said, shrugging her shoulders noncommittally. "But I wouldn't feel comfortable doing any modifications without Charles' input. Maybe we can ask when he gets back."

"Won't have to wait too long," Hank commented, a hint of a small smile lacing his voice. "He's coming home tomorrow."

"Wait, what?" She asked, before yelping as she accidentally shocked herself with the wires in her surprise. "When did you hear this?"

"Yesterday, Moira called from the hospital while you guys were wreaking havoc in the common room."

Laurien couldn't help but snort, because what Hank had described of them 'wreaking havoc', was actually them moving the furniture around to make an, admittedly, poorly crafted fort.

It had been Sean's idea, but beforehand they had all been watching a rerun of The Twilight Zone on the small television in the common room at Hank's askance. Laurien couldn't be sure what the episode was about, as the howling of the mysterious man in the show was so loud, to the point that it was deafening, and she couldn't hear much else besides the sound of his cry ringing eerily in her ears, but then again, that could have just been because of her recent dose of painkillers half an hour earlier.

Sean had apparently gotten bored from the lack of his new favorite program, The Nurses, which was on at the same time and complained that Hank was hogging the television. Laurien didn't mind missing the medical show, it had a decent plot with mediocre actors and actresses, but of course, she surely doubted that it was the storyline that Sean was interested in.

He eventually stopped badgering Hank to change the channel when he perked up after getting an idea and jumped to his feet. He startled Laurien by sweeping her off of the couch and placing her gently on the carpeted floor before unceremoniously booting Hank off as well.

"What are you doing?" Laurien asked in exasperation, wondering if this was another tactic to annoy them until they conceded and watched his show instead, but her voice died as Sean threw off all of the cushions, jumped over the back of the couch and practically sprinted down the hallway. Laurien and Hank looked over questioningly at Alex who sat silently in a nearby armchair, reading a Fantastic Four comic book, paying no mind to his friend's eccentricities.

Sean returned swiftly with a jumble of mismatched looking blankets clutched tightly in his arms and dropped them in front of their feet. His wild orange hair was a complete mess as the curly strands stuck out at odd angles, his eyes shimmering with excitement. "Let's make a fucking fort!" He exclaimed, his wide smile verging on an exact impression of a character that Laurien had seen in one of Alex's comics.

Laurien couldn't help but stare at the creature in front of her. She didn't recall ever witnessing Sean moving that quickly in all the time that she'd known him, and his expression more than the casually stoned look he usually had on his face. His emotions were infectious though, and she found herself getting giddy off of his mood. She smiled and hurried away to grab a roll of string and some tape and returned to start on the fort with Sean and Alex, who had abandoned his comic and was dragging a mattress from one of the unoccupied bedrooms. In their child-like chaos, they had neglected to hear the ringing of the telephone that Hank eventually picked up, seeing as The Twilight Zone seemed to be a lost cause for that night.

"And you didn't think to tell the rest of us?" Laurien said as she got to her feet and padded toward where Hank sat, hidden behind a table littered with copious amounts of blueprints for the wheelchair.

He simply shrugged. "It was supposed to be a surprise."

She frowned. "Then why did you tell me?"

"I'm bad with secrets." He admitted, wincing comically in shame. "Which is ironic, considering the one that I've been keeping since my birth."

Charles did, in fact, come home the very next day. He rolled up with Moira in a taxi and they met them at the iron gates of the property. Laurien smiled brightly as one of the car doors opened to reveal a healthy Charles, very different from how he looked back in Florida. His cheeks were rosy and his crystal blue eyes lit up in delight to see them all again. He was wearing an ill-fitting blue suit, as the hems of his pant legs were too short, and the length of his sleeves too long, but he didn't seem to notice. Laurien became aware of the way that Moira held Charles' bag tightly with a white knuckled grip, looking on with anxious brown eyes as Hank helped Charles into the newly fixed wheelchair that he thanked him graciously for. Laurien watched the brunette carefully, though admittedly kept her distance, as the other woman's restless waves were nipping at her nerves and putting her on edge.

Laurien bent down as Charles approached her and hugged him gently, grinning as the heat from his hand on the back of her neck radiated contentment, and in her rapidly growing joy, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"We missed you." She whispered softly in his ear.

"I counted on it." He chuckled before she released him to greet the others.

* * *

Soft moonlight drifted through the window of the common room, casting faint shadows upon the deep red wallpaper that coated Laurien's surroundings. She stared unseeingly at the wall before raising her arm experimentally, a small smile tugging at her tired face as she made a dark shadow bird flap its wings momentarily against the light before she dropped her arm back down.

She looked around the common room uninterestedly, the snores of the boys next to her breaking the silence. They were asleep inside the fort that they had created, like children would at a sleepover, after they had all found that they didn't want to sleep anywhere else, so there they were, all huddled together, protecting each other from the cold of the outside world.

They hadn't exactly gone outside that much since Charles had come back home to the mansion a few days ago, as the weather had recently taken a nasty turn, which did nothing to help anybody's mood. The temperature had plummeted and the wind would howl eerily like a pack of starved wolves against the walls of the mansion, bringing back memories of the days when she was a child in Alkmaar and would hide beneath her covers in fright at the sound as her young imagination ran away with her.

That night was a welcome exception though, the winds had died down and a soft silence had fallen over the house, though Laurien found it harder to fall asleep than ever. Recently, she found that every time she closed her eyes, she saw Erik's coin forcing its way into Shaw's head, the sickening crunch of his skull ringing in her ears as she buried her head into her hands and pressed her fingers hard into her temples, willing the sound to disappear.

She would finally relax and roll over on her good side on one of the mattresses that Alex had dragged in. Her mind unconsciously drifted back to earlier that night when they'd played truth or dare, which had almost ended after Sean had toppled off to the ground when his sore arm gave out after Alex had dared him to do a handstand on the back of the couch.

"Okay, Sean, truth or dare?" Laurien asked slyly before she threw a Sweet Tart into the air and caught it in her mouth.

"I think he's only allowed to do truth now." Alex chuckled as he tilted his head toward the couch.

"Aw, you guys are complete buzz kills!" Sean pouted.

Alex shrugged. "Look man, I'm all for seeing someone hurt themselves as much as the next guy, but we don't need any more injuries in this house, all right, bud?"

Sean finally conceded and settled for truth, allowing Laurien to ask when he'd had his first kiss.

"Judy Larson, first grade." He blurted without any thought, surprising the rest of them.

"Okay, your turn, Laurien." Hank said after taking the lollypop out of his mouth, leaving his tongue a bright red. "Truth or dare?"

"Uh, truth." She decided, smiling against the nervous excitement that plagued her whenever she played the game.

Hank looked at her for a while, choosing his question. From the look in his eyes, she should have known what was to come. "Do you still love Erik?"

"Hank." Alex's low voice warned, as Laurien's smile disappeared.

Her stomach plunged, a wave of startling heat washed over her as she felt all their eyes turn to her. The air was suddenly thin, but it didn't seem to matter, because she had forgotten to breathe in her horrible surprise.

Hank must have finally realized his mistake, and quickly backtracked. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have, I-"

"No, it's all right." She started timidly after she finally found her voice, though it was quiet and hoarse. "It's just that the truth is that," She took a deep breath, her eyes flitting down to her hands. "I don't really know."

It was the truth. In all the time that it felt like they had spent together, it had only been a month and a half that she'd known Erik. In her opinion, it was too short a time to fall in love, and Laurien didn't believe in the myth of love at first sight, but she still found herself not wanting to say yes or no, as if her tongue couldn't get its way around forming the words that expressed how she really felt.

Laurien quickly got bored of squeezing her eyes shut and begging for sleep, so she carefully lifted herself up from where she was wedged between Alex and Sean, and proceeded toward the hallway that led to their real rooms. She turned the switch to the lamp in her room, only to frown when it remained unlit. Reminding herself to replace the bulb in the morning, she stepped blindly across the floor of her bedroom until she was met painfully in the stomach by her bookshelf and cursed. She heard the sharp sound of glass shattering as something toppled onto the hardwood.

"Just perfect." She mumbled, groaning as she bent down and felt around for what had broken, her anxiety growing along with the multitude of curse words in her head as she knew that she was bare foot and surrounded by broken glass in the dark.

Her fingers finally met something beside shards and grabbed it, as she let out a small exclamation of triumph. From the feel of its rectangular shape and the glass, she knew that it was probably one of her picture frames and grumbled in annoyance as she used her powers to sweep the shards into a neat pile somewhere to her left. Now able to walk around freely, Laurien padded back toward the dim glow of the hallway and once the light hit the picture, she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.

Her siblings, Bastijn and Roosje, stared back at her with enthusiastically sparkling eyes from within the black and white scene, their delightfully crooked smiles as radiant as the sun. The then eight year olds stood side by side, each holding an item that made Laurien long for home; Roosje held a heavy wheel of fresh Gouda that almost dwarfed her, while Bastijn had a bouquet of bright tulips clutched in his grey hands.

Laurien smiled, soft tears rolling down her cheeks as she pressed her fingertips gently against the glossy surface of the photograph. She remembered the exact events at the festival that had surrounded the moment that she'd taken the picture with her father's camera; her siblings had been fighting over who got to hold the cheese for the photo, because Bastijn refused to hold something as quintessentially feminine as a flower. He ended up getting a lecture from their father and afterwards, forced to hold the tulips.

She remembered how it had all worked out in Bastijn's favor in the end, as he had given a girl standing next to him in line for poffertjes one of the yellow tulips. She'd kissed him on the cheek three times, as the Dutch traditionally did, leaving Bastijn completely smitten, and from then on, in love with tulips.

She hadn't seen them in years, she thought, tugging unconsciously at the stray caramel strands of hair that had fallen out of her messy bun as a wave of despair shot through her veins. She felt a sob rising in her throat, but she forced it down and dragged her sleeve across her tear stained face. Her mind was suddenly set and she started toward Charles' study, picture frame in hand.

She hesitated before the door to the study, her knuckles just an inch away from the solid glossy wood as she thought it through, wondering whether or not she should just drop her hand and return to the fort. She finally turned around to head back, but a voice entered her mind.

"Come in, Laurien." It told her.

She took a deep breath and spun around, pushing the doors open to reveal where Charles sat in his wheelchair by his desk, his dusty brown hair a perfectly tousled mess, but his eyes as tired or if possible, more tired than they were when she first met him.

"Sorry to bother you, Charles." She started, but he stopped her quickly with a wave of his hand.

"No bother at all, dear." He said, hitting the control to spin his wheelchair around, but he accidentally misjudged the distance and bumped into the side table. "Whoops, excuse me." He exclaimed, patting the table in an apology.

Laurien smiled as she sat down on one of the many armchairs. "Uh, I don't how to say this, but-"

"You want to go back home." He finished for her.

Her eyes widened in panic, as she tried to clarify herself. "Just for a little while, to get some closure, I guess, but I don't have to if you need me to be here. I could-"

She saw the amused look on his face and quickly shut up. He grabbed her hands and squeezed them tight as she felt his reassurance flow through her. "You go do what you need to do, we'll be right here when you return."

Her chest swelled up and she didn't know what to say, but she eventually managed to say something. "Thank you so much."

He smiled and was about to let go of her hand when something suddenly dawned on him and his smile disappeared. "Erik came to visit you, didn't he?" He asked seriously, though kindly. She nodded and he raised his hand near his temple. "Uh, may I?"

She nodded again and pushed his hand against his temple in consent. She felt his comforting presence searching through her mind until he eventually latched onto the memory of Erik's visit. Laurien heard the sound of the metal bender's voice in her ears and the sensation of his fingers on her skin, but she winced and pushed the reminder away as she felt Charles pull away from her mind.

She met his gaze and he looked back at her with quiet reverential eyes. Uneasiness settled in her stomach as she felt his apprehension at letting her go, but she grabbed his hand and leaned in close. "Please don't tell him where I've gone."

He nodded slowly in understanding before squeezing her hand again.

 **This chapter took forever, so I do apologize. I did a lot of research for this chapter, including the TV channels in the US in the 60s. They only had three channels! NBC, CBC, and ABC, I think. Can't wait for the story to get on in the time line, Hogan's Heroes, Batman, M*A*S*H*, and many more honorable mentions to come! In other news, I saw The Witch, Spotlight, Carol, and Transcendence. The Witch was... interesting, to say the least. Also watched the Oscars on Sunday, congratulations to Leo, Brie, Mark and Alicia! I was also glad to see Mad Max win so many and Ex Machina to win visual effects. By the way, don't look up a pneumothorax procedure on Youtube... Yikes!**

 **I heard something on the net that Michael Fassbender performed an improv scene in Apocalypse that had everyone in tears. Can't wait!** **Thanks again! Please review!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Hi! I'm making up for the long wait of the last chapter with a speedy chapter 20. I wrote this in a day, maybe a total of eleven hours, because I had no homework this weekend, yay! This was also the most fun chapter to write. Hope you all enjoy!**

The countryside flashed by through the window of the train compartment that Laurien shared with two other passengers, an old woman and a young girl, her granddaughter most likely from the way that she would periodically giggle and point out something to the woman in the big picture book that her small fingers were holding tightly. Laurien smiled at the two of them, though she went hastily back to looking out the window when she felt her eyes welling up. She blinked quickly and took a deep breath, trying to take interest in the architecture of a passing farmhouse to divert her attention from what she was feeling.

It really was beautiful, Belgium. The flat grassy fields were usually a rich emerald green, so bright and colorful that you could see its reflection in someone's eyes if you looked hard enough, but around this time of year, a thick blanket of powdery white snow hid it beneath its folds. Laurien had made a point to pack warmly, with as many winter coats, scarves and woolen socks that she could fit in her suitcase, which she was utterly thankful for because as she sat in the train compartment, she felt her cheeks losing feeling as the cold outside air seeped in through the small cracks in the glass of the window. Packing had been rather difficult, as Sean had the habit to swipe things from her open suitcase and put them back into the drawers when she wasn't looking, elongating the process immensely until she caught wind of it after the third time that she'd packed her black scarf.

They weren't happy to see her go. Sean sulked and pouted in a corner of her room after she told him off for messing around as Alex sat sullenly on her bed reading another one of his comics. It was only Hank that actually helped her pack, but she could tell that he was reluctantly doing so. The quiet bitterness that hung in the air eventually became too much to the point where she slammed her hardcover copy of Animal Farm against the desk, making them all jump.

"I'm coming back, you all know that right?" She said sharply. "I'm not abandoning you like he did."

They all looked taken aback, but Hank quickly spoke up. "We know that, Laurien."

"Then why are you acting this way?"

"Well," Alex murmured from his spot, cross-legged at the head of her bed. "We are exuding a perfectly normal human behavior, you should try it sometime."

"Hey!" She barked as she raised the book threateningly, but Hank stopped her.

"What he means to say is that we just don't want to see you go, but if you really have to, then we'll miss you."

Her face softened. She lowered the book back down onto the desk and shook her head. "I'm not even completely sure why I'm going."

"Sometimes you have to get there to understand." He said, shrugging his shoulders. "Even if it is three thousand six hundred and ninety nine miles away from us."

She narrowed her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips. "You counted?"

He bowed his head bashfully and helped her finish packing.

Laurien buried her face into her black wool scarf after she saw the sign that they were entering the town of Ghent, letting the heat of her breath warm her skin and bringing small pinprick sensation into her cheeks as feeling gradually returned to her cheeks. They were nearing their destination, as Ghent wasn't too far from Ypres, but with each second that passed, another butterfly was born inside her stomach, as they got closer. It had been almost three years since she was last there, with Bastijn, Roosje, and… him, but she couldn't shake off the feeling that it was only yesterday that she had left with tears in her eyes and vengeance pounding against the walls of her chest.

She still didn't know if she should be doing this, but it was too late to turn back now, she honestly didn't want to go back on another plane. She'd already had issues in the airport when she almost forgot that on her passport, it said that she had blue eyes, prompting her to try her best to become sad quickly, as she stood next in line for the check in. She hastily remembered seeing on the television that Queen Wilhelmina had recently died, and it seemed to do the trick, though just nearly in time.

The plane ride wasn't any better as the man seated next to her had noticed her anxiety when she groaned as they went through some turbulence, her face losing its color instantly as her stomach leapt into her throat when the plane dipped suddenly.

"Not an easy flyer, huh?" The man asked, his voice thick with a prominent cockney accent. "Not much of a flyer myself, not after the crash in Maryland last week."

She nodded in agreement, remembering the newspaper headlines that she'd seen Charles reading at the breakfast table.

"Been on many planes, miss?" The young man asked, again trying to make conversation.

"No, I've only been on a few." She said, taking deep breaths to calm herself down as the turbulence soon disappeared. "Though, I haven't had a lot of luck with the planes that I've been on. One of the last ones I was on crashed."

His eyes widened before he promptly buried his nose into a random page of his magazine, not saying another word to her for the rest of the flight, except to bid her farewell when they had mercifully landed in one piece.

London was much like how she had left it a few months ago, bustling with people and cars. Everywhere she went, she smelled the acrid perfume of cigarettes and cigars, fuelling her desire for one as her heart kept beating relentlessly faster and faster in her ribcage. She was close to giving in to her craving when she happened upon a pub and suddenly realized how famished she was. She'd ruminated over her plans for the next couple of days with a pie and mash in front of her before turning to people watching as she sipped at a vodka gimlet, as the bartender had said it was called, and found that she had calmed down considerably after that.

Later that day, she was off on a long night ferry ride to Brussels before boarding the train to Ypres, though with each step she felt like she was walking toward the gallows. She'd been barely able to read in her anxiety, the words on the page of her book kept jumping around like overexcited rabbits and the story was hard enough to follow as it is. She'd picked up the book at an old bookstore in London, since the shop clerk said that it was potentially the best piece of literature that she'd ever picked up, so Laurien obliged in buying it, though she was thoroughly regretting it.

It was called Catch-22, an apparent best seller that had been released last year. She'd had high hopes at the start, though as she read through the first few chapters with great difficulty, she grew increasingly irritated with the fact that all of the characters seemed to be certifiably insane.

"This is ridiculous!" She'd exclaimed quietly as she tossed the book onto the empty seat next to her on the night ferry, fuming from the injustice that was the treatment of the unfortunately named character, Major Major Major Major.

On the other hand, she very much enjoyed the protagonist, Yossarian, as he was the most humorous of the bunch, and no matter how much the insanity of the other characters annoyed her, she just couldn't stand the thought of putting it down without finding out what had happened to Yossarian in the end.

The book sat comfortably half-read in her bag, its blue cover peaking out from behind her notebook and her tin of hopjes that she'd previously offered to the woman and her grandchild, both of whom accepted gratefully.

Laurien could see the town of Ypres rapidly approaching in the distance as she rubbed a hole through the fogged up window before tentatively getting to her feet. Gathering her things, she waited for the train to pull to a complete stop and for the woman and her granddaughter to leave before attempting to get her suitcase from where it was situated in the overhead area. She made sure that no one was looking as she used her powers to lift the suitcase and slowly lowered it into her arms. Smiling contently to herself, she carried it out with her to the station platform and set it on the ground, looking out anxiously towards the snowy town before setting off.

She recalled that it was normally a fifteen to twenty minute walk to the house, but with the obstacles of the snow and the ice, it took her over half an hour. During her walk, she was thankful for her red pea coat and her black hat that protected her from the cold, since she unfortunately found out the hard way that her shoes weren't quite waterproof when she accidentally stepped into a deep pool of icy water, prompting her to swear loudly.

She trudged on, her mood decreasing gradually with each step as the water seeped into her socks and froze her feet, and it didn't help that the house came into view before she was prepared for it. It crept up on her like the monster from Frankenstein, slowly at first before springing on her and sucker punching her hard in the stomach, or at least that's what it felt like for Laurien.

It was lovely town house, connected to others of its likeness, but only just. The front stairs led up to a large faded red front door that was littered with missing chips of wood. Their aunt Mathilde had always complained about the door, but in response, Laurien always said that it gave the house character, not that it didn't have character already. The house was made of solid reddish-brown brick and was surrounded by a soft cream trim that laced the windows and the doorway. The archway above the door was molded and carved into multiple unrecognizable creatures, but Laurien remembered that Bastijn had called them his kleine waterspuwers, as he viewed the house to be a castle at his young age when they had first arrived almost eight years ago.

At the summit of the house was a glass dome that acted as a skylight, meaning that they never had to have the lights on during the day from all the natural light they received. Laurien loved the dome, as it usually let them see the meteor showers in the summertime without obstruction, that is, when leaves and birds haven't been leaving deposits there. Laurien wasn't fond of going out onto the roof to clean it, but apparently the birds thought it to be simply hilarious, so consequentially, she found herself up there once every week.

She didn't know how long she had been staring at the house from where she stood at the foot of the steps, but when a voice called out to her in her native language and she turned her head, a considerable amount of snow fell from where it had accumulated on her hat.

She spun around to see the familiar faces of her old neighbors, Adela and Franz Fleischer coming down the steps of their house. "Hello, stranger." Adela smiled as she pulled Laurien into a soft embrace.

"Hi." Was all that Laurien could say as Adela's perfume enveloped her in its sweet scent, bringing her back to the days when Adela would let her try on her dresses when she came over to her house after school.

Adela was only a few years older than Laurien, and was the closest thing she'd ever had to an older sister and Adela gladly welcomed her, seeing as she was an only child. Laurien had always envied her for looking like she was Audrey Hepburn's twin, as Adela had dark brown locks that felt like silk when you ran your fingers through it, and beautifully dark eyes to match.

Laurien couldn't remember how long they'd know each other, but she would describe it to be forever, considering that she couldn't remember a single day going by during her childhood in Alkmaar that Adela hadn't been there in their kitchen, laughing at something frivolous that Roosje and Bastijn were arguing about. Laurien had grown up believing that they were cousins, but it was only after the war that she found out about Adela's family being Jewish and that they'd been hiding them in the attic since they'd first caught wind of the Nazi's plans of taking them away.

"How long has it been?" Franz asked as he finally joined them after taking his time on the stairs with his prosthetic leg. Adela had told her the story of how he'd lost it during the war, though he was unfortunately on the wrong side of it. He was seventeen when the Nazis started pulling teenagers from their schools and putting lugers in their hands. He'd paid the price of something that he'd had no part in starting when a grenade blew his leg off on the front and the Allies had taken him as a prisoner of war. He'd been stationed at a POW camp in France before he was tasked with helping to rebuild some of the towns in Belgium, where he stayed ever since and finally met Adela a few years later.

"Too long." Laurien said in Dutch, her tongue naturally easing back around the familiar words as she gave them both a kiss. She suddenly noticed the large swell from underneath Adela's thick emerald coat. "Adela…" She started, wanting to be careful with the subject just in case she was mistaken.

"Yes, I'm fat. I know, and I don't care." She laughed as she placed her hands on her belly. "I just can't wait to get this thing out of me. Come on, let's go inside and get you unpacked."

"The cravings are astounding." Franz whispered to Laurien as they each grabbed a bag and followed Adela up the steps. "Yesterday, it was pickles covered in melted chocolate. God help that child."

Laurien giggled, trying not to think about how disgusting that would taste. "Do you know what you're going to name it?"

"Brynner, if it's a boy." Adela stated as she fumbled around with the keys. "And Saskia, if it's a girl, but Franz doesn't agree."

"Oh?" Laurien asked, looking at the smiling Franz. "You do know that you're fighting an uphill battle."

"I know, but I like Annika." He said meekly.

"What do you think, Laur?" Adela questioned as she pushed the door open and flicked on some of the lights. "Annika or Saskia?"

"Oh, do not think for one second that I'm getting in the middle of this." She giggled as she entered through the doorway.

"That's what everyone else we've asked has said." Franz mumbled, closing the door behind him as he brushed the snow off of his prosthetic leg. "With good reason."

"Anyway, how does it feel to be home?" Adela asked as she shrugged off her coat, revealing the enormity that was her belly.

Laurien took her first glance in years at what was her home for five years before she left and saw that it almost looked exactly the same. With the fading wallpaper and the worn down flooring, it looked old, but not unpleasantly so. It was a well lived in house, and there were black and white photos hanging everywhere to show you of the people who'd walked the floorboards, consisting of old family and friends from before and after the war, though there were noticeably some people missing in the later photos.

To her right, the open space in front of a large window was filled with a hectic arrangement of mismatched furniture that had been brought in over the years, ranging from bright fluffy orange loungers to conservative hand carved wooden chairs, all of which sat before a small television.

Before her was the doorway to the comically small kitchen that had always puzzled her. Apparently whoever had built this house was too preoccupied with the glass dome overhead to think about a proportional divide between the kitchen and the living room, but she was used to it. The baby blue cupboards almost completely covered the walls, save for the spot above the sink and the stove, the latter of which had caught on fire during a rather spirited try on Laurien's part to make a pancake that apparently had some ingredient that didn't bode well under pressure.

Laurien ran her fingers over the smoothly varnished wooden counter, memories flooding back to her of cooking and baking with Bastijn while Roosje handed them ingredients as she sat on the counter, reading Anne of Green Gables. Her eyes welled up again; as they had earlier on the train and she blinked them back again.

There was more of the house to familiarize herself with again, but she avoided looking toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms, knowing that part of the house was for when she was alone.

She put on a smile as she looked back at Adela and Franz, hoping that her eyes weren't showing what she actually felt, though they wouldn't know any different. "It feels good."

 **So that's chapter 20! I'm actually reading Catch-22 right now, and I probably have the same view on the book that Laurien has, though I'm still holding out hope that the story will actually start. It's not a bad book though, believe me, it's made me laugh many times, I'm not bashing on it. It's just so absurd and different! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed, thank you very much for your support and please review!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey, hope you all have had a great week! It's the first day of Spring Break for me! Be prepared for another chapter by Friday, (Maybe) but I will be gone soon for Ottawa to attend a program and might meet Prime Minister Trudeau! I'm so excited! Anyway, here is chapter 21, enjoy!**

Laurien frowned when she heard the loud creak of the floorboard beneath her feet as she delved deeper into the basement, hoping that the ancient wood wouldn't snap and send her plummeting into unknown territory beneath the house. She thought better of taking any more steps forward and summoned the remaining boxes that were tucked away in the corner, dragging them along the ridged rollercoaster that was the warped floor and gently up the stairs before they were set down gingerly in the middle of the overly spacious living room.

Laurien settled herself down on her makeshift throne of mismatched cushions that she'd piled up on the ground, and wrapped herself snuggly with a blanket before attempting to open up the box. The floor was especially cold that day, verging on the sensation of traipsing barefoot over thin ice in Antarctica. Laurien didn't really mind, as she had her old cozy sheepskin slippers, though seeing her own breath was a little disconcerting, considering that she was inside, but she still refused to light the fireplace.

"You're going to freeze to death." Adela had chastised when she had come over to check in on her the day before, though she noticeably didn't reach for the pack of matches where they laid, untouched, on the top of the mantelpiece.

It had been a week since Laurien had arrived in Belgium, and she was still getting used to being back in the house. Eventually things started coming back to her, such as always smacking the wall before turning on the light to the kitchen or skipping the fifth step on the staircase, which she begrudgingly remembered after earning multiple colorful bruises on her forearms where she had caught herself after tripping over the faultily measured step. In the past, it had always been a challenge bringing new people over to the house, as it was so automatic for Laurien and the others to jump the step that they always forgot to mention it to their guests, resulting in many trip ups.

The house had earned the nickname 'Death Trap' by Roosje and Bastijn during their first year of calling it their home. It wasn't the fact that it was old, since almost the entire town of Ypres had been destroyed in World War One, so it was all relatively new, but from the many idiotic accidents that had happened, Laurien wanted to personally hunt down the builders and punch them hard in the jaw.

The miscalculations of the kitchen and living room ratio were just barely forgivable, but when she counted the fifth step, the slanted floor of the bathroom and the dead raccoon that had made their chimney its tomb in '57, she was furious. Though she supposed that the raccoon had nothing to do with the builders, she blamed them for it anyway in her head. The whole thing had soon developed into a sort of running joke with the twins, as whenever something went wrong, even if it was just a broken pencil, they would curse, "Damn builders!" at the top of their lungs, much to the dismay of their aunt, who would sometimes have guests over when a loud cry would erupt from one of their rooms.

Though throughout all of their problems, whenever Laurien would ask her aunt Mathilde why she bought it, she would simply state that it was different, and Laurien couldn't deny the fact that the house was just that.

'Death Trap' had always been a rather affectionate name for their home, but over the years, Laurien couldn't help but grimace, as the name had taken on a whole new meaning for her.

She still hadn't gotten up the courage to see Bastijn and Roosje. She kept putting it off to the next day, and then when tomorrow finally came, she moved it on forward again. It wasn't like they were expecting her though, they didn't know that she was there, and she honestly didn't really think they would care, considering the circumstances, but Laurien couldn't put off the nagging feeling that tugged at her every morning when she awoke on the living room couch.

She also hadn't even attempted to step foot down the hallway leading to their bedrooms. She avoided at every turn, averting her eyes until she eventually put up a thick wall of tape to cover the doorway of the hallway so that she wouldn't have to look at it and be reminded. Though in consequence of her avoiding the hallway meant that she hadn't even entered her own bedroom to sleep, which left her on the couch for most nights.

It was comfortable enough, though she severely doubted that the dark blue love seat was meant to be slept on. Laurien had found some moth eaten blankets and cushions in one of the closets and made a pleasant lounging spot out of it, which worked wonderfully until the temperature suddenly dropped far below zero as they moved steadily deeper into December, prompting her to build herself a makeshift cocoon out of the many layers of blankets that almost enveloped her whole, leading to the unfortunate fright that Laurien had accidentally given Adela when she'd tried to sit on her that morning.

"Oh, Jesus in heaven." She exclaimed, clutching at her heart as she stared down at where Laurien's head had popped out from her cocoon. "I thought that you were just a pile of blankets."

"Nope." Laurien said once she'd lifted her toque up from over her eyes. "Just a caterpillar waiting to become a beautiful butterfly."

"Oh well, probably going to need to wait a lot longer, caterpillar." Adela giggled as she tossed a blanket over Laurien's head.

She pulled the blanket off of her with a smile on her tired face, but it disappeared when she noticed Adela looking at the wall of tape. "What's that all about?"

"It's nothing to worry about." Laurien stated, trying to detach herself from the cocoon with great difficulty as her stomach growled, giving her reason to change the subject. "Have you eaten?"

"Yeah, thanks." Adela said; her brown eyes glued to the wall as she followed Laurien into the cramped kitchen. "Franz brought home a small tub of Sirop de Liège from the store yesterday, there's a sale on at the market if you want any."

"I think I have some in the cupboard, but I don't really know how old it is." Laurien responded as she searched for the small container, until she finally found it and attempted to grab it, but ripped her hand away from it the moment her skin made contact with a sudden stickiness. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's gone bad." She said, grimacing as she tried to hurriedly rinse the substance off her hand.

"Laur?" Adela's voice asked softly, though she heard the subtle strains of something painful behind her gentle tone.

"Yeah?" She said as lightly and innocently as she could, though ultimately knowing that after all these years, Adela could see right through her.

"What's with the royal blockade of tape?"

Laurien heart sank before taking a deep breath that agitated her side a little, seeing as her ribs were still in their last stages of healing. "I already told you that it's nothing."

"That doesn't look like nothing." Adela challenged, placing a firm hand on her arm, as if she were afraid that she would run away which seemed quite impossible, seeing as in the cramped kitchen, Adela blocked her only possible exit with her enormous belly. "Looks like you're trying to hide from something."

Laurien closed her eyes tight, shaking her head as she pushed down the mix of ice and fire that surged through her veins, before turning around to face her friend. "I'm just not ready." She whispered, her words almost incoherent as she tried to force a small smile of reassurance.

"I know, honey, I'm sorry." Adela said, gently rubbing Laurien's arm. "I shouldn't have brought it up, today of all days."

Laurien frowned in confusion. "What's today?"

Adela practically snorted loudly, seemingly forgetting about the serious subject of their previous conversation. "It's your birthday, dumb ass."

Laurien glanced over at the calendar by the telephone in habit, only to remember that it still said that it was 1959 and looked away. "Oh, right. I guess it is the tenth."

"Yup, and I've already got Franz baking something special over at the house. We tried to send you a card last year, but we didn't know where you were."

"Oh, no, that's fine. You didn't have to." Laurien said, racking her brain for where she was last year, and a slight twinge in her shoulder brought the memory rushing back. "I think I was in Berlin."

Not even a beat passed before Adela was on her. "What the hell were you doing in Berlin?" She asked sharply, her big brown eyes growing wider than usual, causing Laurien to wince as she realized the consequences of what she'd confessed. "Do you know how dangerous it is to be around there? I've read the stories in the newspaper, and I-"

"Adela, I was completely safe." She interrupted, thinking it best to stop her before she went on an irreversible spiel.

"Really? Then what's this from?" Adela asked; reaching up and poking the white scar that Azazel had given Laurien on her cheek.

"That was from something else that you shouldn't worry about." Laurien said as she batted Adela's hand away and returned to make her breakfast. "Besides, I had a friend looking out for me the whole time in Berlin."

"What friend?" The brunette demanded, crossing her arms over her big stomach. "I thought that I was your only friend."

"Okay, that's a bit narcissistic." She said slowly, seeing if she could try to diffuse the situation by adding some playful humor, but Adela wasn't having any of it. "And I've had plenty of friends over the years. You remember Meryl and Bram from Alkmaar and-"

"Never mind," Adela waved her diversion off. "Who was this friend that had the absurd idiocy to allow you to go to Berlin just after the wall was built?"

"Adela-"

"No, tell me. I feel responsible for your stupid ass, therefore you must tell me this mother fucker's name so that when I meet him or her, I can kick their ass."

"You're not going to meet him, especially after saying that." Laurien stated, her voice rising higher in alarm as she raised a finger to warn her friend. "He's already been through enough without you breaking his nose like you did with Thom."

Adela laughed bitterly. "Oh, don't tell me that jack ass didn't have it coming."

Laurien opened her mouth, but quickly closed it when she realized that she was absolutely right about Thom, and then felt her lips curl into a wry smile. "Well, at least we know that you're going to be a great mom."

"I'm counting on it, dumb ass." She said, raising an eyebrow as she grabbed a jar of pickled herring from the icebox and a fork before twisting off the lid. "So come on, tell me."

Laurien sighed, knowing from experience that Adela wasn't one for letting things go. "Bellamy Awnan."

"That's a weird name." Adela commented, scrunching up her nose like a chipmunk. "What is that? French? Scottish?"

"Yes, and no, he told me that his heritage was French and Irish, but he was born in Canada."

Adela face fell comically into a frown as she accidentally let a piece of herring slip off the fork. "Aw, I can't beat up a Canadian."

"Why not?"

"They were so damn nice when I met some of them at the liberation of Alkmaar." She said, sighing loudly before smacking the counter with her hand. "Damn it!"

She was about to stick the fork into the jar of pickled herring when Laurien swiped it out of her grasp. Adela glanced up and opened her mouth to protest, but Laurien only waved a finger in front of her. "No raw fish, remember?"

Adela gave her a dirty look and muttered something unintelligible under her breath, before leaving the kitchen to look at the old knick-knacks that Laurien had already sorted through as Laurien ate her breakfast on her cocoon. Adela left after Franz had called to ask her if she had been especially attached to a small china figure that she'd kept above the stove, which Adela said was 'Franz speak' for that he'd broken it and didn't want to be yelled at.

"I'll see you in an hour or two, that is if the house hasn't burned down by then." She'd called from the front door before leaving Laurien to continue her purge as she retrieved the final boxes from the basement.

When she'd settled down with a blanket across her shoulders, she rifled through what seemed to be a box full of broken rubbish until she came upon what looked to be a wooden circle. Laurien smiled as she realized that it was Bastijn's old yo-yo that he'd broken when he was playing with his friends down by the De Boer farm. He'd told her that they'd been playing a scene from The Martian Chronicles and that they were fighting off Martians with their yo-yos, and his had accidentally hit the big apple tree and broken in half.

Laurien pressed her lips together thoughtfully as she rolled the broken pieces around in her hands, savoring the feel its feel before reluctantly putting it in the trash bag. She knew that Bastijn would've scrunched up his nose, just as Adela had, if he knew that she'd felt so sentimental over a snapped piece of cylindrical wood, but to her, it was a reminder of a cherished memory.

At the bottom of the box, she was surprised to find a photo book underneath all of the old junk. She pulled the thick book out and set it on her lap before opening its thick cover, revealing a large photo of her Oma and an older man with horn rimmed glasses, who she assumed to be her Opa, in front of their house in Arnhem, that they'd traveled an hour and a half to get to before her Oma decided to live with them in Alkmaar after the war. She remembered overhearing her Oma talking to Laurien's mother and saying that she couldn't bear being alone in that house without Opa. Laurien now understood what she meant as she looked around at the cold empty house that surrounded her.

She turned the page to see a picture of her mother as a child of around seven, accompanied by another girl who would almost look identical to her if it hadn't been for her smaller size, and unmistakably mismatched eyes. Laurien frowned, as she hadn't any clue as to who this girl was, her mother had never mentioned having any siblings or cousins, but from the way that her mother had her arms wrapped tightly around the girl, they must have been close. She noticed that at the bottom of the photo it was written in small loopy handwriting that it had been taken in 1923 and whoever it was in the photo, if she were even still alive, would be in her mid-forties by now.

She turned the page again and saw her parents' wedding photo, though she almost didn't recognize them. As Laurien had grown up, she'd never noticed how haunted their faces had looked in real life and compared to how they looked in the picture, she suddenly noticed the major difference. In the photo, her rosy cheeked mother was wearing a gorgeous long-sleeved dress whose silk skirt fell just above her ankles, accompanied by a thin veil that just peaked into view from behind her, and her neurotic looking father was wearing a neat black suit with a spiffy looking top hat to hide his mane of unkempt hair.

Laurien suppressed a small giggle at the word 'spiffy' before noticing how happy they'd looked. They surely could not have foreseen the troubles that were to come with the war, as many of the people in the wedding photos were now long dead and buried, though Laurien couldn't remember who was gone and who was still around.

She spotted Aunt Mathilde next to her brother, who was Laurien's father, and saw the grand smile that she had so seldom seen when she'd lived with her. On her other side was her husband, who Laurien had never met, though his smile was so bright and cheerful that she wished that she'd known him. Everyone in the photo smiled in such a way that suggested that someone had told a joke before the flash of the camera had gone off, and from the way that all of their eyes looked so alive, Laurien sorely wished to know what the joke was.

She flipped through the next few pages, seeing the day that her parents had moved into their old house in Alkmaar, the time her dad's friend had gotten so drunk that he'd thought it would be a good idea to jump from the roof and into a pile of snow that had incidentally not been as soft as he'd expected and ended up with a broken arm during the Christmas of '39. She continued on until something suddenly made her stop abruptly. She went back to a picture of her mother, who, by the size of her stomach, was pregnant with Laurien at the time, before her eyes switched to who was next to her and widened in shock.

Despite a few changes in hairstyle and clothing, Laurien held a hand to her mouth to quell the gasp that had been building in her throat as she recognized the woman as the one that she'd seen in Charles' study in her dream. There was no doubt about it, she had the same perfect teeth of her sad smile, the same shade of hair and most damning of all, the same difference in pigmentation of her eyes, one light and the other dark. She hurriedly flipped back to the photo of her mother when she was a girl, and kicked herself for not noticing earlier that the younger girl was a shoe-in for the mysterious woman.

Laurien went back to the photo of her pregnant mother and the woman and tried to carefully slide it out from its clear slip, but her shaking hands made it difficult to grasp it without tearing her piece of evidence. She finally managed to get it out and flipped it around to the back, heart hammering hard against her chest as her eyes fixated on the names written on the lower right corner.

Griet and Sera, Alkmaar, September 1940

She jumped to her feet and dashed to the kitchen, photo in hand. She'd put off asking Charles who the woman was for too long, but now was her chance. She quickly dialed the phone number that Charles had given her into the light blue rotary phone and waited for someone to pick up, her patience wasting away with each passing second as it rang over and over again. Finally, someone picked up.

"Hello?" A familiar voice answered slowly.

"Sean? Oh, thank God, can you please get Charles?"

There was a long pause before Sean answered again. "Wait, what?"

Laurien almost threw the phone out the window as her agitation was getting to her, but she took a deep breath and repeated what she'd said. "Can you please get Charles?"

"Who is this?"

"Sean!" Laurien exclaimed, throwing up her free hand in exasperation.

"No way, that's my name too!"

Laurien smacked her forehead with her hand, willing for herself not to explode. "Sean, it's Laurien, could you please get Charles? I need to talk to him urgently."

"Oh, yeah. I'll get him." Sean's voice finally said.

"Thank you so much, I owe you one."

She waited for only a few seconds before her ears mercifully heard the sound of Charles' lilting voice on the other side of the line. "Laurien?"

"Charles! I've got something really important to ask you." She blurted out quickly, her words almost getting caught around one another.

"What happened? You were supposed to call us the moment you got to Belgium to tell us that you made it all right. We've been worried sick!"

The strictness of Charles' tone made her face burn in shame as she mentally cursed herself for forgetting. "I'm so sorry, Charles. I just got so caught up in everything here that it slipped my mind."

"Oh, it's all right, I'm just glad that you're safe." He said reassuringly. "Now, what was it that you wanted to ask me?"

Adrenaline shot through her entire body as she remembered that reason why she had called. She opened her mouth to tell him all about the woman, when she was interrupted by a sudden loud thud from the living room. Laurien frowned, wondering if she'd just imagined it, but when she heard a small grunt, she froze with the telephone against her cheek, just barely breathing as she quickly noticed the faint scent of smoke drifting gently into the kitchen.

She heard Charles calling her name from the receiver, but she didn't say a word as she gently placed it down on the counter and slowly crept toward the doorway of the kitchen, summoning one of the larger knives from the cutlery drawer into her hand. Laurien held her breath as she pressed her back against the cupboard and tightened her grip on the sleek handle of the knife. She gritted her teeth, a jolt of ice spreading through her veins as she carefully peaked her head around the corner.

Laurien's stomach plummeted as her scared blue eyes met the source of the noise and the smoke, immediately wondering if she should sprint for the door or fight the intruders, but either way, there was one thing that she knew that she must do beforehand. She crept back over to the telephone and lifted it to her ear again, her breath rattling nervously against the receiver.

"You didn't tell Erik where I was, did you?"

 **Gah, cliffhanger! Sorry about still being kind of vague, but I promise you that it will all be revealed soon. By the way, I meant to write Sean as being a bit stoned when he picked up the phone, I can't remember where I read that he was kind of into drugs. In other news, I got to see Zootopia, Dark Places, and Macbeth (finally!). Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard are absolutely amazing! I've been a fan of Marion Cotillard since I saw Inception and I liked her in The Dark Knight Rises as well. Also, there was a question asked the other day by the awesome jazu10501, that I thought that I should mention, as which actor I see as Laurien. I see Carrie Mulligan as Laurien, most of all when she was in that episode of Doctor Who called Blink, I think. That might be my favorite episode of Doctor Who ever. If you didn't already think that I was nerdy, you should know that I have a canvas painting of a weeping angel in my room that I painted myself... I regret nothing :) So, thank you all, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review!  
**


	22. Chapter 22

**Hey, people! Well, I made good on my promise to give you a chapter by Friday, and I did it by Thursday (Canada time) Have you all seen the new X Men: Apocalypse trailer? If not, then you really should. :) This is a shorter chapter, but more dialogue based, so I'm just going to go cringe in a corner while I wait for the prognosis. Anywho, here is chapter 22!**

Laurien waited for Charles' answer, though none came. Barely breathing, she checked the phone to see if there was something wrong with it, but found nothing visible that would impair or terminate the call. She was starting to wonder if there had been a problem on his end or if he had just hung up, but when Charles' voice finally pierced through the receiver, she had to quell her need to sigh in relief, as she wasn't out of the woods just yet.

"I haven't told anyone, let alone Erik." He said slowly, his tone laced with anxiety that only made her feel worse. "Laurien, what's going on?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated at the last second, her breaths coming in too rapidly and too shallow for her to speak properly. Laurien pressed the back of her hand that was still holding the knife to her forehead in an effort to calm herself, and swallowed with difficulty before finding her voice. "He's here."

"Who's there? Erik?" Charles demanded hurriedly.

Another soft groan from the living room stopped her from answering as her eyes darted over to the kitchen doorway. She found herself slowly lowering the receiver down to the counter and padded toward where her eyes were situated on, even as the rest of her body screamed for her to stay where she was. She crept around the corner and into the living room, her footsteps muffled by the soft fabric of her slippers as she neared to where Erik was lying on the couch that she'd used for her bed, with a tense hand over his abdomen.

She felt as if there was a bonfire in her stomach that was burning through her from the inside out as she glanced at the changed state of the man before her. In less than two months, he already seemed to have gained quite a bit of muscle, from the way his black t-shirt clung to his form. No longer so slim and lithe as he'd been back at the mansion.

He'd cut his hair as well; it was now much shorter and hints of ginger undertones peaked out through the strands of his hair, just above where beads of sweat glistened on his pale forehead.

A pop of color diverted her attention as she noticed that his helmet was abandoned at the foot of the couch, now covered in shiny red and purple paint that made Laurien grimace when she realized that there was a matching coat to go with it that was lying on one of the mismatched armchairs.

His ghostly white face was emotionless and relaxed, so she assumed that he have fallen unconscious. He looked the same as he had when she'd left him after waking up, enveloped in his embrace the morning of the Cuba incident. She pushed away the memory irritably and started to move back to the safety of the kitchen as her common sense caught up with her.

"Were you actually thinking of stabbing me with that?"

Laurien stopped dead in her tracks and spun around to look at him, his blue eyes now open just slightly as a small half smirk pulled at his mouth. She gritted her teeth as she begrudgingly released her grip on the knife and let it fall to the ground with a metallic clatter.

"Why the hell are you here?" She asked tersely through her teeth, feeling the minute vibration of her powers in her veins as she looked for something to grab onto at a moment's notice.

He chuckled weakly. "You didn't think I'd miss your birthday, did you?"

She scowled, her temper flaring as her vision flashed red. "Erik."

His smile faded slowly as he tilted his head to look at her and saw the crimson glint in her eyes, his efforts at a carefree reunion deemed futile. He winced as he removed his tight grip on his stomach, revealing the underside of his hand to be smothered in blood.

Laurien's eyes widened as she took a sudden step forward to get a better look. "What have you done?"

"Had a little accident." He chuckled again, though he quickly turned serious again as he saw her horrified expression. "I need your help.

She tore her gaze away from the bloody mess that was his stomach to look him in the eyes as she crossed her arms; her breaths steady and slow as she felt herself take a step back, shaking her head.

"Laurien, please." He pleaded, suddenly trying to get to his feet, only to fall back onto the couch with a sharp groan as he clutched his stomach. He took a few laborious breaths before he grimaced and gritted his words out with difficulty. "I don't expect you to forgive me, after all that I've done, but can we just put it aside for now?"

She stared at him with narrowed eyes and he seemed to take it as a no, but he persisted. "I just really need you, Laurien." He murmured, his eyes pleading to her good nature.

She swallowed, wanting to rid herself of the bitter taste in her mouth as she turned on her heel and walked toward the kitchen. As she entered through the doorway, she almost collapsed when a wave of Erik's disappointment hit her, causing her to latch onto the counter for dear life as she felt his emotions battling her own inside her, clawing at each other violently.

She struggled to get up to her feet and suddenly hit herself in the ribs with her fist, hoping that a shock of pain could snap her out of it. It did, though she accidentally took herself by surprise and Laurien had to bite down on her hand to keep herself from crying out as she tried to focus on the pain, willing it to surpass the overwhelming emotional sensation that was spreading throughout her chest like a rabid disease.

She let out a shuddering breath as she released her hand and waited in silence for the slight blistering feeling in her side to subside. A slight incomprehensible murmuring sound met her ears and she looked around curiously, momentarily forgetting her predicament as she searched for the sound, only to suddenly remember that Charles was still on the phone where she'd left it on the counter.

She grabbed it tentatively and held it up to her ear, hearing what sounded like the tail end of a heated argument.

"Charles." Laurien said, hoping that he could hear her voice over the ruckus.

The argument ended abruptly before his voice bled through the phone. "Laurien, are you all right? Did he hurt you?"

She found herself smiling at the sound of his voice, even with the blatant high sound of concern that Laurien hated to hear in others' tones when they talked to her. "No, I'm fine."

"Now sit tight, we're planning to go on the private plane as soon as we can, we'll arrive by tomorrow, most likely."

Laurien suddenly had the horrible image enter her head, of Charles and the boys kicking down the door and entering the house that she would much rather not have them know the history of. It was bad enough that Charles knew, but admittedly, she hadn't had any other way around it, but this time she did. "No, stay there!" She blurted out into the phone, wincing at her tactless stupidity as she glanced toward the doorway of the kitchen, hoping that Erik hadn't heard her. "Look, I'll deal with him, okay?"

"I can't ask you to do that."

"I can handle it, if I was able to handle Dan for all those years, I can handle Erik." She implored, hinting Dan's name to remind him, as she pushed down the small ominous voice from the back of her head that wondered aloud whether Erik showed signs of being worse than Dan.

There was a long silence on the other side of the line as he understood and then he finally spoke. "You're sure?"

She breathed a soft sigh of relief before answering. "I'm sure. Besides, he's injured pretty badly, how much harm can he do?"

She regretted her words the moment they sprang from her mouth and shut her eyes tightly, wanting to punch herself in the face. "I'm sorry, Charles, but I've got to go. I'll call you later, okay?"

She hung up the phone and grabbed the first aid kit that they kept in the cupboard above the icebox and she tried to ignore the way Erik's emotions lifted when he saw her pull up an armchair next to him.

"Take off your shirt." She told him flatly, though from the glint in his eye, she had to hold back the urge to smack him.

He did, though not without needing Laurien's help. She gently peeled the black fabric from over his wound and revealed a thick foot-long gash that stretched diagonally from his hipbone to just below the middle of his ribcage. Laurien felt a strange squirming sensation in her stomach as she stared at the injury, but proceeded to pull Erik's shirt off over his head.

"You're lucky it isn't deeper, could've been disemboweled." She murmured quietly as she took a closer look, noticing the small uneven pinpricks on either side of the gash. "What got you?" Laurien glanced up at him, eyebrow raised questioningly. "Or should I not ask?"

A grin crept its way onto his face as he wiped his hands off on the towel that she'd given him. "Some maniac had a very sharp wooden sword."

Laurien frowned, her fingers stalling on getting a needle and thread ready. "Care to elaborate?"

Erik bowed his head, looking thoroughly embarrassed. "Some assassin, that was hired to protect a diplomat in Shanghai, ambushed us when we got too close and-" He sighed as he rubbed his forehead, smudging some blood on his brow that he'd missed cleaning off of his hand. "He specialized in fabricating state of the art wooden swords that cut through flesh the way metal does. Unfortunately, we didn't know that at the time."

"So your plans fell through?"

He shook his head. "Not exactly. Emma dealt with him whilst Azazel took out the diplomat, but not without bringing a lot of attention to ourselves."

"Isn't that why you're doing it though?" Laurien asked bitterly as she prodded the ripped skin, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from the man. "To get attention."

She saw that he was about to respond, but she didn't give him a chance. "What are these?" She demanded, pointing out the small pinpricks that she'd noticed earlier. "Did someone else try to stitch it up before you came here?"

"Yeah, Angel did. Didn't do a very good job of it though, tore out the moment I tried to get up."

"Well, no shit." She commented grumpily, looking at the needlessly torn bits of skin in distain. "You shouldn't have tried to get up. You need to let them set in for a while when they're in that general area." She said, cocking her head vaguely in the direction of his infuriatingly toned abdomen. "I would know."

Guilt radiated off of him, though when she saw his hand move toward her in the corner of her eyes, it was all that it took to set her off. His hand was an inch away from grabbing hers when a strip of fabric ripped from one of the blankets, shot out and wrapped itself around his wrist, yanking it back and tying it to the leg of the couch below him.

He looked over to her in alarm, but she avoided his gaze, busying herself in finding the right gauze from the kit to set over his wound once she'd finished, even though she'd already found it five minutes ago.

Laurien got to her feet and walked over to the armoire on the other side of the room that held all of the alcohol that her aunt had kept hidden away. She opened the large pine doors and sorted through the different types until she happened upon a specific bottle. She made her way back as she popped open the cork, noticeably not smelling anything from the bottle.

"Why did you come here?" She asked slowly, soaking a cloth in the clear liquid.

"Before you came to New York, you were training as a nurse in London, weren't you?" He explained, making Laurien's blood run cold.

"How did you know that?" She demanded sharply, making the horrid mistake of picking that moment to suddenly press the soaked cloth into his wound.

Erik let out a hoarse yelp as his back arched off the couch, prompting her to quickly put her free hand on his chest and push him back down into the cushions, worried that the sudden movement might have ripped the cut even more. "What the fuck?" He ground out irritably as Laurien noticed the metal ashtray shuddering on the side table.

She didn't apologize, only removed the towel and tossed it into the waste bin to her right. "There, disinfected."

"What the hell was that?"

"Grain alcohol. Didn't have any rubbing alcohol left, so I went on to the next best thing." She said, shrugging her shoulders before picking up the prepared needle and thread. "Now, how did you find out about my nursing training?"

"Your file." He explained, wincing minutely as she started to stitch him up. "Went back to the CIA base to get Emma and I found it open on someone's desk."

She frowned, not knowing who Emma was, but didn't think that now was the time to ask. "And that's obviously how you found out about the house." She murmured slowly, her head starting to hurt unexplainably. "What else did you find?"

"You had a nice family. Parents died in an explosion, though that I already knew." He said softly as he watched her poke the needle through the layers of skin. "Though one thing did catch me by surprise."

"Hmm? What's that?"

"In the very few times that you mentioned your siblings, you never once mentioned the fact that they're dead."

The needle froze half way through the last stitch at the same moment that Laurien had stopped breathing, as she closed her eyes tightly, wishing that she could run away in that moment and never come back. But she then let out a smooth controlled breath and continued to finish up the stitch before tying it off and sitting back in her armchair, suddenly feeling thoroughly exhausted.

"What do you care if they're dead?" Laurien whispered steadily as she massaged her blood stained hands in front of her.

His blue eyes stared at her, meeting her green irises dead on with a tenderness that she hadn't seen since the night before Cuba. "I care because I care about you, is that so hard to understand?"

She raised an eyebrow, but didn't answer, taking a deep breath before heaving herself out of the chair and tossing him a roll of gauze as she broke the fabric binding his hand to the couch. "Don't rip them again." She warned as she grabbed a bottle of vodka from the armoire and headed into the kitchen with the enticing goal of finishing it within the next hour.

 **Dun Dun Dun! It is finally revealed, though you might have guessed it already, subtlety is not my strong suit. What did you guys think about the chemistry between the two of them? Was it okay? I'll be gone for the next week and a half and then school starts again, so sadly it might be a while before the next chapter, but I'll try and make up for it by having the next couple closer together. Hope everyone had a good St. Patrick's day, thank you very much for your support, hope you enjoyed and please review!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait, but I have a much longer chapter for you all in consolation. :) I had a great time in Ottawa last week and I even got to take a picture with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau! One of the many highlights of my trip! You don't know happiness until you've eaten poutine at 2 in the morning after having a maple latte with a big shot of espresso! Though I also heard about the attacks in Belgium and Pakistan while I was there, and you all have probably guessed by know that I really love Belgium and plan to move there one day, so hearing about all of this really hit me hard. Our thoughts and love go out to all of those affected in both countries. Stay strong! :) Here's chapter 23!**

Laurien awoke with a start, a strangled gasp ripping itself from her mouth as she clutched the armchair that she had passed out in the night before. Her chest heaved mightily as her lungs screamed in a fiery agony, before slowly subsiding after her vision cleared up, revealing the vast living room around her. Suddenly remembering where she was, she muffled a soft sob with her hand as she buried her face into the blanket that surrounded her, letting the darkness block out the world.

She flinched when she felt gentle hands tentatively grab her shuddering arms, but eventually let them pull her onto the ground and into a warm embrace as Erik's voice hummed softly in her ears.

"You're all right." He said repeatedly as he rocked her soothingly back and forth until her sobs lessened into small hiccups and sniffles. "You're all right, it was just a dream."

She felt the overwhelming need to tell him that it most certainly wasn't, but the uneven drumbeats that were echoing loudly in her head silenced her words, leaving her to close her eyes tightly as she tried to get her erratic breathing under control.

He held her against his chest for what felt like an eternity before he spoke. "Would you feel up to telling me what it was about?" Erik asked kindly as he pressed his lips to her forehead, reminding her to grab onto his calmness and slow her heart rate. She nodded, grateful for the wave of serenity as it washed over her and cleared her mind. She slowly disentangled herself from him and getting to her feet as she wiped away her tears with her sleeve, trying, but ultimately failing to meet his gaze.

"Thanks, but it was nothing."

She tried to move toward the bathroom to clean herself up, hating herself for crying in front of him, but she found that Erik's hand was still on her arm, keeping her in place. "Please, Laurien." He said, his eyes searching hers worriedly as he squeezed her arm comfortingly. "We both know that's not true."

She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut, willing the incessant beats pounding against the walls of her head to cease. She nodded, conceding bitterly as she felt a muscle in her jaw twitch.

He blinked understandingly, releasing his hold on her as he glanced over to the wall of tape blocking the hallway. "Does it have something to do with that?"

"Yeah, but let's not talk about that right now." She said groggily as she rubbed her temples. "I feel like someone's hitting my head with a sledgehammer."

"Not surprising, considering how much you drank yesterday." He commented, before receiving an irritated glare from Laurien. "What? It wasn't even noon yet."

"Since when has that stopped anyone?" She asked indignantly before looking outside and seeing to her great annoyance that it was still dark. She sighed and scratched her forehead, feeling the room vibrate around her. "I'm sorry I woke you." She murmured apologetically. "You should go back to sleep."

"And what are you going to do?" He asked, frowning.

She shrugged noncommittally. "Maybe eat something, I don't know. Though I'm not sure I can keep anything down at the moment." She mentioned as she felt her stomach pulsate sickeningly.

"Maybe you could show me how to make those puffy things?" He suggested; prompting her to stop rubbing her temple abruptly to look up at him with her eyebrow raised questioningly.

"What?"

"Those pancake things that you told me about in the kitchen of the mansion, the first time we-" He trailed off, though Laurien knew what he had meant to say.

The first time they'd kissed, she thought, as an odd squirming sensation surfaced in her stomach as she remembered how wonderful his lips had felt on hers and the gentle passion of his fingers that had been tangled loosely in her hair. Though with a slight twinge in her side, she quickly caught herself and pushed the memory away.

"Do you mean poffertjes?" She asked slowly, trying to bring herself back to the present.

"Yeah, poffertjes." He repeated back to her, his mouth splitting into a grin. "I never did get to try them, seeing as you burned them."

"Well, whose fault was that?" She prompted, cursing herself mentally as a small smile appeared reluctantly on her face as well.

Their smiles disappeared as quickly as they had come as they stared at each other, his blue meeting her now green pair before they flitted down to her mouth, and even though it was only for a second, she still caught the movement.

At their closeness, Laurien noticed a slight purple bruising arising at certain points around Erik's jaw line and throat that she hadn't noticed before. Frowning in concern as she wondered if he had earned them along with the foot long gash during his misadventures, and she reached up to touch them out of curiosity, but thought better of it and dropped her hand.

She saw him start to lean in, slowly at first, as if he were scared to spook her. She didn't retreat, though as his forehead touched hers, she couldn't help but think back to how he had done the same gesture in the submarine, right before he'd broken her heart. With a small exhale of breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding, she backed away slowly before turning on her heel and making her way into the kitchen, biting her lip as she felt his disappointment.

"I don't think that I have the ingredients." She stated as steadily as she could, hoping that a little bit of distance from him would be enough to fight off the conflicting sensations racing through her veins, though she found that she wasn't so lucky, as Erik ended up following her into the kitchen as she tried to busy herself with looking through the cupboards.

"Do you have a grocery store around here?" He asked, his tone innocent enough, but for some reason the question annoyed her.

"Well, yeah, we're secluded, not cut off." She said, wincing, as her tone was a little bit sharper than she meant to. "I can head there once it's light out, I've got some things to pick up anyway."

"May I join you?"

She frowned. "Don't you have to get back to your 'Brotherhood', or whatever you call yourselves?" She asked bitterly, grimacing as the word rolled off of her tongue unnaturally. "Won't they care if you're gone?"

"They'll do fine without me for a few days."

She froze with her hand on a bag of sugar. "A few days?" She repeated, wondering if she had heard right.

"If you'd have me."

Feeling a slight wariness rising in her chest, she turned to face him and observed him carefully before looking down at her hands nervously. She hadn't the slightest idea if he had some secret agenda behind this whole visit, if he were simply using her in some way to further his group's objectives, but she knew that the longer he stayed in her view, the more time she could make sure that he wasn't standing on a soapbox in front of some government building, playing his role as the vicious dictator of mutants.

"All right." She stated finally, putting a hand on her hip as she leaned against the cupboard tiredly. "But you should get some more sleep first. I don't want you collapsing into a snow drift on our way there, I'll never find you again if you do."

He smirked in satisfaction. "I could say the same thing about you."

She waved him off half-heartedly. "Nah, I've got coffee for that. Besides…" She said as she cocked her head toward the armchair.

He nodded in understanding, and started to head toward the couch when she suddenly grabbed his wrist in a vice like grip as she noticed the difference in how he moved. "Wait a second," She muttered, breathing in a wave of fear as his eyes widened in surprise. "Let me see the stitches."

His face fell visibly, like a child that had been caught stealing cookies, and he reluctantly lifted the slightly oversized black shirt that had previously belonged to Mathilde's husband up from his stomach. He revealed the gauze that had been wrapped around his abdomen, now with a moderate spot of blood seeping through the layers.

"You ripped your stitches again, didn't you?" She sighed irritably as she ran her fingers lightly over the stained bandage. "How did you do that?"

She glanced up at him and saw the look on his face, suddenly understanding how he'd done it. She hadn't realized how fast he'd come to her aid when she'd woken up in a panic, but now she knew the cost he'd paid for it.

She lowered her eyes back to the wound guiltily, and lowered the shirt over it before she patted the counter, motioning for him to sit as she went to grab the first aid kit for the second time in twenty-four hours.

Later that morning, they made the trip through the two feet of snow to the store. Laurien cringed with every step as another handful of snow would enter the top of her rubber boots and sink down to her toes that were thankfully encased in warm woolen socks. She glanced over to where Erik stood beside her; bundled up in the winter clothes that Laurien had found in Mathilde's husband's closet and couldn't help but giggle. Apparently Aunt Mathilde had been very fond of deerstalker hats after reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as a child, and had bought her husband one for Christmas as a joke. A joke that he had been only too happy to humor, as he had taken to wearing it through out the winter months every year until his death, as Laurien had noticed in the old photos she'd seen in the big book she'd found in the box. So when Laurien had gone looking for something for Erik to wear instead of the ridiculous red and purple suit he'd brought, she thought it best to teach him a little humility.

She'd stood in front of him as he rifled through the clothes, waiting with bated breath until he came along the hat and held it up in front of her.

"Are you serious?" He asked, narrowing his eyes as he looked up questioningly at her.

"If you want to stay here, you've got to wear the hat." She stated simply, desperately trying to keep a straight face.

He'd sighed in exasperation before putting it on his head and raising his arms in the air. "Well what do you think?"

Laurien frowned, taking a step back as she crossed her arms together. "I'm actually rather annoyed right now."

"What? Why?"

She shook her head in disbelief. "It looks good on you."

"You're lying."

"No, I'm telling the truth." She said, tilting her head toward the mirror by the stairs. "All you need is a pipe and you're set."

It had begun to snow again the second that they had set foot out the door, making Laurien very thankful for her red toque that protected her ears from the cold winds that threatened to tear them off. It had only been the second time that she'd been fully out of the house since her arrival in Belgium and she still hadn't quite gotten used to the big dump of snow that they'd gotten, which was quite evident from the way that she trudged slowly through what felt like molasses.

They were only a few blocks away from the store when she slowed a bit, watching to see if Erik would notice and turn around, but he didn't. She smirked to herself and crouched down, feeling something foolish and child-like come over her as she gathered a large amount of snow into a tight ball with her mittens before using her powers to throw it at Erik. The snowball hit him solidly in the back before dissolving into an explosion of fluff. He grunted softly and spun around in confusion before seeing her smiling slyly a few meters behind him. His usually stoic face quickly turned to one of mischief as he suddenly bent down and gathered up his own snowball and threw it at her. His aim was impeccable, but she was able to dodge it at the last second as it whizzed by her shoulder. She had been too preoccupied with dodging the snowball to prepare herself for when Erik grabbed her around the waist and dragged her down as he slipped, leaving a human shaped imprint around Erik's body in the powdery snow as she fell on him.

Laughing, she propped herself up on his chest and looked down at him as her light caramel hair tickled his handsome rosy cheeked face. She smiled broader as she saw his million teeth grin do the same, his blue eyes lighter than ever as they reflected the white snow around them. Her smile suddenly disappeared as he brushed a strand of hair away from her face, her wide eyes flashing a combination of violet and cerulean as she felt something invisible hit her repeatedly from the inside. Suddenly scared, the cerulean rapidly overtook the violet as she got to her feet and brushed the snow off from her coat.

"We're only a few blocks away, we should get moving before the snow gets worse." She said quickly, avoiding his gaze as she held out a hand to help him up.

She could feel his eyes staring, but she ignored the sensation with all her might as she tried to keep her heart from jumping out of her chest.

It was quiet the rest of the way to the grocer's and she was thankful for the noisy distraction as they opened the chiming door and walked into the busy store. They were met with a burst of hot air, as it seemed as if the store had all of its furnaces at full throttle, prompting must of its customers to peel off their many layers as they went about the store. It was quite the same as she remembered, several rows of shelves laden with varieties of bread, fruit, cheese, and other sweet items, such as large blocks of chocolate and small tubs of Sirop de Liège that were on sale, as Adela had mentioned the day before.

They had put up new signs since she'd last been there, most of which detailing the amazing taste of Coca Cola. She smiled inwardly as she remembered tasting Coke for the first time the day that she'd met all the other mutants in the CIA base. It had been so strange and it reminded her of alcohol and cigarettes in a way, how it burned her throat and irritated her nose, though she still couldn't help but feel drawn to it.

She pulled the shopping list out of her pocket and beckoned for Erik to keep close as she weaved through the aisles and people toward where she remembered the bags of flour to be. When she reached the shelf with countless sacks of flour, sugar, coffee and tea, she suddenly felt the creeping sensation that someone was watching her. She turned her head to her left, only to find a stern looking old woman staring intently at her with large watery eyes.

"Oh, I knew it was you!" The woman squealed excitedly as she clasped one of Laurien's hands in her own skeletal pair. Laurien tried her best not to wince as the woman's sandpaper-like skin grated against hers uncomfortably as she recalled whom the lady was.

"Bonjour, Mme Girard." She responded as kindly as she could. "It's nice to see you again."

"Nice to see me again?" She repeated shrilly enough to make all the people around them stare at her. "Don't say it if you don't mean it. Gone three years without so much as a goodbye and that's what you say to me? Probably hoped that I was dead like the rest of them by the time that you came back, eh girl?"

"No, Mme." Laurien implored, though now dearly wishing that she were dead instead, as she looked around desperately for Erik, only to sigh silently in relief as she spotted him making his way over with a carton of eggs in his hands.

"Who's this?" Mme Girard asked, eyeing Erik suspiciously through her large glasses as he approached, taking off his hat.

"This is my friend-" Laurien started, but Mme Girard cut her off with a stern look.

"I was asking the young man, not you, girl." She said dryly before turning back to Erik.

Erik gave Laurien a quick glance before extending his hand to the old woman. "Erik Lensherr, Mme."

Mme Girard scrunched up her nose at his hand before addressing Laurien again. "So, you've finally found a supposedly suitable man?"

"You could say that." Laurien murmured quietly, green eyes widening as she realized that she'd actually said it out loud and quickly worked to fix her mistake. "That is, it isn't quite set in stone just yet."

The old woman grunted, unimpressed. "What are you doing back here, then? Come to stay in one place for once?" She then turned to Erik, squinting her old watery eyes. "She was always a runner. When I first met her, she was running from dogs and cattle, but now I guess she's turned to running from funerals, eh?"

Laurien face suddenly felt overwhelmingly warm as she found herself glaring daggers at the woman, though she just assumed that it was just the heat of the store. As Mme Girard prattled on about who knows what to Erik, she peeled off her heavy coat with difficulty, seeing as the woman still held her hand in a death grip, and set it over her arm. Spots danced spastically before her eyes, as the heat didn't seem to let up, even with her taking off her coat.

Thoroughly uninterested in whatever insultingly controversial things Mme Girard was babbling about, she let her mind wander, remembering a time when Aunt Mathilde had told them all to avoid the woman at all costs and they had obeyed dutifully. Mme Girard had been especially frightening when Laurien was in her teens, and age had done very little to dull her scary nature. Her dull blue eyes were rimmed with red beneath heavily arched eyebrows and her mouth was usually twisted in a cruel scowl that hid dark yellow teeth behind them. Her hair was yanked back tightly into a strict grey bun that she usually kept underneath a large putrid green hat that was known to have hosted a Nazi flag instead of a feather during the war.

Laurien was suddenly jarred back to the present when a flash of anger radiated strongly from Erik, alerting her early enough to hear the tail end of Mme Girard's rant. "-seems like everyone is dropping dead around her! I mean, just look at the trail of bodies if you don't believe me, first the parents, then Mathilde, then the little brats and then finally the boy, though I guess they ruled that out as a suicide. What do you have to say for yourself, girl?"

Laurien wasn't paying attention. She breathed with difficulty, as it seemed like Mme Girard's words had been turned into magma that was being forcefully poured down her throat by the woman's jagged nails. She blinked back the tide of red that was seeping in around the edges of her vision and looked up at the woman before her. Laurien opened her mouth uncertainly, but found that her words were stuck in her throat.

"Speak, girl!" Mme Girard snapped sharply, digging her nails painfully into her hand. "Or has Dan cut out your tongue as well?"

The sudden flash of red sprang fully in front of her eyes as Laurien ripped her hand out of the old woman's death grip, feeling the agonizing sensation of her skin splitting beneath the woman's ragged nails before she turned on her heel and fled through the sea of people, dropping her coat in the meanwhile.

She ignored Erik's efforts to call out to her as she burst through the door and into the freezing cold, almost knocking a young boy clean off his feet as she turned around a corner at break neck speed, not stopping to apologize as she ran as fast as she could with no particular destination in mind.

She made it as far as the De Boer farm on the outskirts of the other side of town before she collapsed to her knees in the snow. Breathing heavily, she stared unseeingly at the old apple tree that Bastijn had broken his yo-yo on, feeling a rush of tears coming to her eyes. She bit them back angrily as she realized that she was so tired of crying, and suddenly summoned a piece of barbed wire from the fence next to her and wrapped it tightly around the bare hand that Mme Girard had held. Laurien grimaced as she felt the stinging bite of the wire digging into her skin, but ultimately sighed in relief as she felt the emotions ebb away, only to be replaced with sweet physical pain. Physical pain, she could deal with, she thought despairingly, it was the other kind that she was worried about.

She sat in the snow for an unknown amount of time, though enough that the blood coating her hand had begun to dry as the bleeding slowly stopped. She looked down and saw the drastic contrast between the white snow and the splashes of red that stained it before shoving her hand into the snow and washing off the blood, all the while, eliciting a whole new kind of pain the she welcomed wholeheartedly.

Once she was clean, save for the thin red line and the deep gouges on the back of her hand, she got to her feet, groaning as her stiff muscles screamed from disuse. She started trudging back home; knowing that it would take her almost an hour to get there, as the snowfall had picked up considerably and the roads had grown icy, though she just wrapped her arms around herself and kept walking.

 **I was actually really happy with how this chapter turned out, which is honestly weird for me. In other news, on the airplane to Toronto, I watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the third time, so that was fun. I also watched Spaceballs, just for kicks. "What's wrong, Colonel Sanders? Chicken?" Ah, that made me giggle. Can't wait for season six of Game of Thrones as well, only a month away! I have not seen Batman VS Superman yet, might try to see it this weekend if I have the time. All right, thank you all for being such amazing readers, it's always a pleasure to hear your thoughts. Thanks again, hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Hey guys! I know that I've said that previous chapters have really kicked my ass, but this one takes the big fricking cake. It's also my longest chapter to date. Caution: Stuff happens (Not going to mention it specifically, SPOILERS!) (Doctor Who reference) Enjoy!**

Laurien's body had long since started shivering violently by the time that she turned the corner onto her street and saw him walking in her general direction. She inexplicably moved behind a cherry blossom tree that stood before one of the nearby houses and peaked her head around the corner, only to see that Erik had stopped and sat down on the steps to her house. He ran a gloved hand over his tired face before his head fell back and his eyes opened to look up into the blinding heavens, as soft tendrils of snow drifted down lazily and landed on his flushed skin and reddish hair.

She felt her feet slowly carrying her out from behind her hiding spot and over to him as she saw the pained expression on his face, his eyebrows raised and his mouth moving just slightly into forming soft words as small transparent clouds of breath were released into the air before him, almost as if he were praying to whatever being was above listening before lowering his head into his hands again.

She padded forward as quietly as she could before stopping dead in her track as he heard the rustle of her feet in the snow and glanced up. He got to his feet, visibly wincing as the movement pulled at the tender skin of his stitched abdomen, his wide eyes shining brightly in a mixture of relief and worry, prompting a horrible wave of guilt to well up inside her as she saw it. She felt her foot lift tentatively as it started to take a step back, the guilt being overtaken by a sudden desire to run, but she forced herself to move toward the man in front of the house.

Laurien slowed to a stop in front of him, not meeting his gaze as she took in the way that his chest raised slightly faster as she felt his warm fingers brush lightly against her frozen injured hand. She lowered her eyelids, taking a deep shuddering breath before slowly sliding her hand in his, letting his warmth seep gradually into her skin as his grip tightened comfortingly around her. She opened her eyes and glanced up at him, a faint golden hue surrounding the edges of her vision as she gave him a small sad smile.

A flicker of alleviation appeared on Erik's face before rapidly fading into confusion as her gaze turned hard and green again on the turn of a dime when she looked up at the house. "I need to show you something." She murmured softly, a tired breath releasing itself from her body as the effort to keep her voice steady slowly drained her of her energy.

"What is it?" He asked, though she didn't reply for a few moments as her eyes caught the subtle twitch of a muscle in his jaw as he clenched it.

"The truth." She uttered finally, before letting go of him and dashing up the stairs of the house.

Laurien flung the door open with her powers as she heard him call after her, her pace speeding up to a slight run as she neared the wall of tape, tearing it down so violently into a sticky pile that fragments of wallpaper were ripped out along with it, before she leapt over it and sprinted down the hallway. The sounds of her rapid footsteps were accompanied by the fainter noises of Erik following a ways behind, a small curse muttered under his breath as he stepped over the heap.

"Laurien." His voice rang off the walls of the hallway, following her to where she stopped dead in her tracks in front of the first room, her hand an inch away from the handle.

Erik had finally caught up to her, grabbing her upper arm in a tight grip that a parent would use to control their runaway child. "Laurien, what are you doing?"

"I'm dealing with it." She murmured, not taking her eyes away from the age stained door.

"Dealing with what?"

"Just-" She said stiffly, desperately searching for a word to explain herself, but she quickly grew frustrated, as she felt her fiery wall of resolve being beaten down with each passing second that she stood dormant. "It." She finally blurted out before ripping her arm out of his grip and impulsively grabbing the handle and pushing it open.

She instantly felt the breath being sucked out of her lungs as she stared wide-eyed into the room. She glanced quickly at Erik before moving through the doorway, pulling her scarf up to her nose as the blown up dust threatened to make her sneeze violently.

She looked around, clutching her chest as an intense phantom pain blossomed from the old scars that marked her skin. Laurien felt an overwhelming wave come over her body as her mouth ran dry, trailing along a familiar craving that prompted her to take a few steps forward to open many of the drawers of the small desk until she found what she was looking for.

"What have you got there?" Erik asked as her fingers fumbled over the opening of the box that she had unearthed.

She finally opened it and held up a small packet of cheap cigarettes in response as she grabbed the lighter that was taped to the bottom of the nearby desk, muscle memory taking over.

"Should you really be doing that?"

She shook her head, but placed one in her mouth anyway and lit it, taking a deep drag before letting out a puff of smoke as she sighed blissfully. "Fuck, I've missed this."

Erik frowned disapprovingly. "I didn't take you for a smoker, especially with you being a runner and all."

"I am the master of contradiction." She mumbled from behind the cigarette, crossing her arms comfortably over her chest as she felt herself calming down.

"Whose room is this?" Erik asked as he neared the dusty window, flipping the latch with a wave of his hand before it swung open and promptly fell off the hinges, plummeting to the ground outside.

"Ha, I forgot it did that." She commented, chuckling softly as she heard the shatter of faint shatter of glass. "And to answer your question, it was my brother's"

"Bastijn?"

"No." She said, taking another deep drag of her cigarette, letting the tobacco burn her lungs just enough to give her a needed dose of strength. "It was Dan's"

The look of shock on his face was enough to make her laugh again, but she suppressed it, feeling like it would prompt a coughing fit. She then settled for a wry smile instead.

"Yeah, I guess I never mentioned that I had an older brother, did I?"

"No, you most certainly did not." Erik murmured as he looked around the room. The walls were covered in a vast array of propaganda posters from various wars, ranging from a picture of a boat sinking with the large caption of 'Loose lips might sink ships' to even a poster of, who Laurien now knew to be, Uncle Sam pointing at her. There were so many that she could barely even see the faded blue pinstripe wallpaper beneath it.

"I don't understand." He said finally, shaking his head. "It didn't mention him in your file."

"No, it did not." Laurien muttered as she kicked a waste bin with her boot, frowning when she noticed a single crumpled up ball of paper within it. "I made sure to censor some of the official papers before I left London, I'm sure it was the same file that was sent over to the CIA when they brought together Division X."

She looked up to catch his expression of incredulity, and she cocked her head. "I have some good friends in high places."

He continued staring at her disbelievingly until he shook his head, seemingly putting the matter aside as there were much more important things to discuss at the moment. "So, why have you been hiding him?"

Laurien ran her fingers through her hair, before clutching the caramel strands tightly in her fists as she banged the back of her head against the wall, trying to push out the emotional pain that clung to her nerves. "He did a bad thing."

"Does Charles know?"

She looked at him blankly as she released her grip on her hair. "What do you think?"

"What did he do?"

"Look, before I say what he's done, I feel that it's necessary that I explain something to you first." Laurien urged, her voice ringing out clearly in the room as her eyes flashed dangerously. "Dan was a good man."

He nodded, taking a seat against the opposite wall, the bottom of his shoes just brushing hers. She tapped his foot, squinting her eyes momentarily before she remembered the matter at hand and started her story.

"He was only five years older than me, but he was old enough to remember a time before Holland was occupied by the Nazis." She saw Erik squirm minutely at the mention of the word, so she continued down a different path. "I never met my Opa, I only saw proof of his existence in pictures and stories that my parents and their friends would sometimes bring up during dinner parties. He died before I was born, but Dan got to meet him, and I was always jealous of him for that."

"I'd never heard of how he died until Dan told me when I was fourteen. He said that before I was born, our father and our Opa would leave the house almost every night, but they would never explain why. One night, Dan set up a plan to sneak out and follow Opa, who apparently went alone that time, because my father wanted to stay back and be with our mother, who was expecting me at any time."

"Dan was only five, so Opa caught him almost instantly and was going to send him back, but apparently where he was going was so important that he couldn't waste time, so he took Dan along with him. It was then that Dan discovered where they'd been going all that time." She said, a small proud smile creeping gradually onto her face. "They were part of the Dutch resistance."

"The others gave him hell for it, but Dan said that he could tell that Opa was proud to bring him. He put him in a back room and had some woman resistance member keep him busy with some stories as the others talked." Laurien chuckled suddenly as she flicked some ash from the cigarette. "He told me some of those stories, they were so strange and morbid. I specifically remember one about a lonely bunny that was so desperate to get friends that he got himself bitten by a rat, though I guess, for it to make sense, I should explain that he was lonely because all the other rabbits cast him out for being posh since he hadn't any scars or marks on him."

"Was that the end of the story?"

"No, the posh rabbit got rabies from the rat and died a few days later after killing all of the other rabbits in a fit of insanity."

"She said that to a five year old kid?" He asked, furrowing his brow in incredulity. "What was her goal there?'

"To teach him that running into a potentially dangerous situation just for the honor of a mark to boast about to your friends is absolutely asinine?" She suggested, shrugging her shoulders. "He said that he didn't fully understand what she was trying to say until much later."

"So he was there in the back room with that woman, when they hear shouting and gunshots. The woman picked him up immediately and hid him in an armoire, telling him to stay there until she comes back for him. Dan said that there was a specific moment that was permanently ingrained in his mind, when our Opa-" She stopped as her voice broke, bitterly pursing her lips, angry that she couldn't say it without wavering, even though she hadn't been there to witness it. She cleared her throat and continued. "When our Opa burst into the room and had his head blown off by an SS officer who had been following him."

"Dan told me that he repeatedly heard the bang of the shot that killed Opa in his ears for months after it happened, and how it had sprayed the woman's face with his blood and brain matter, right before she pulled out her gun and shot the officer in the throat."

"She didn't make it too far before three other officers entered the room and shot her repeatedly all over. The officers left the room, as quickly as they'd come, there were still the sounds of machine guns obliterating the other resistance members in the other room. I remember Dan telling me that he would never forget the silence that followed, as he waited in that armoire."

Laurien's glance flicked up to see Erik where he sat across from her, narrowing her blue eyes as she wondered whether there were actual tears in his eyes or if it was just a trick of the light.

"I don't understand how he got back to the house in one piece, but he did." She said gently as she scratched her nose when a bit of snow from the open window landed on it. "They lost around ten people, including my Opa, my Uncle, and many of our family friends. No one was ever the same after that night."

"It was ultimately the triggering factor for Dan's lifelong obsession." She stated, looking back up at all the posters, suddenly realizing for the first time that there was a black spade painted on the ceiling, making her frown in confusion. "Took him all the way to fighting in Korea."

Erik paused. "But wouldn't he have had to be-"

"Yeah, he was sixteen when he joined. Lied about his age in his file and was sent off for a year and a half when my parents thought he was at boarding school."

"What?"

Laurien rubbed her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut. "Yeah, I know it sounds as stupid as it really was, but he was a gifted liar and claimed that they were too preoccupied with the twins to notice that anything was amiss. He came home in one piece, or two, I guess. He lost his pinky finger somehow, but never exactly talked about what had happened over there. The only thing he did talk about was the hand to hand combat training that he'd picked up from one of his bunkmates. Which is how I learned to fight."

"He only taught me after our parents had died, when we'd moved to Belgium. We practiced in the nearby forest in the summer when it was too hot to do it out in the farm fields where we usually went in the spring and autumn, and in the winter months, we would push all the furniture in the living room to one side to make a nice clearing. He was as good a teacher as I could ever ask for, but I had to be careful."

Erik frowned. "Why?"

She opened her mouth, but hesitated as she picked at the corner of one of the posters with her nail, stretching her neck to the side as she tried to shake off the reminder of the immense pressure that had once been applied there during one of his incidents.

"He was prone to flashbacks of what he'd witnessed in Holland and Korea, I didn't want to trigger him. And anyway, our parents' death was a bit too much for him to handle after he came back from Korea, so he became a devout alcoholic when we settled in Belgium."

Erik's brows furrowed as the word sunk in. "That must have been difficult."

"Yeah, but I couldn't really blame him for it, considering how good and potent Belgian beer is."

"Laurien, I'm being serious." He chastised.

"So am I." She snapped back harshly, before taking a moment to gather her bearings and continuing. "I got him out of it eventually, he got a steady job working at one of the farms here, helping our aunt, Mathilde, take care of the twins, as I went to university in London for nursing and English. Things were rather good for a few years until Mathilde got sick and passed away. I took some time off from my studies to keep an eye on Dan, seeing as he had gotten worse."

Laurien paused, zoning out to the point where she didn't even notice when her cigarette had burned all the way down to her fingers, prompting Erik to reach forward and take it before it burned her, extinguishing it on the floor with his foot as she suddenly came back to her senses and flexed her hands anxiously.

"One day, I go out for groceries." She starts; taking deep breaths, as she knows that keeping her breathing under control is the only way she's getting through this with most of her emotional sanity in tact. "I come back and I immediately know that something is wrong."

"I go into the kitchen and- and one of the kitchen knives is missing from the cutlery drawer. I went down the hallway and as I neared his room, I felt something on my feet." She said, her toes unconsciously twitching inside her boots. "There was an unusual smell, I still remember what it was like. Stale and muggy, a coppery tang mixed with something I have never been able to pinpoint, but through it all, I knew that the house reeked of death."

"I opened up this door." She nodded her head toward the open doorway, discretely wiping away a rogue tear that had escaped through the tired barriers of her eyes. "And they were here, Bastijn and Roosje, dead on the floor."

Erik made to move towards her, but she backed away sharply and pinned his body against the wall with her powers. "Don't." She urged, her voice suddenly desperate and panicked. "Not now, or I'll never get through it."

Her shoulders sagged in relief when she saw him nod silently and she slowly released him. "They were only twelve years old." She gritted her teeth bitterly, her face hot and wet as she forced out her next words. "The autopsy said that their tongues had been cut, their eyes gouged out, and their fingers cleaved off at the knuckle. I never knew why he did that specifically, but I'm not sure that I want to know."

"I didn't get a good look at both of them, but it was long enough. Next thing I knew, there was a knife sticking out of my chest and he was stabbing me." She said, her voice lowering into a faint whisper as her fingers fumbled nervously around the base of her neck. Laurien shook her head. "I fell on my back and saw the same wild look in his eyes that he would get during his flashbacks. He didn't know what he was doing, probably thought that he was back in Korea."

"How did you get out?" Erik asked.

"I panicked, as was to be expected in the circumstances, and when he came at me again with the knife, I-" She looked down at her restless hands, twisting her knuckles hard enough to break them. "I buried it into his eye socket."

"So you killed him?"

"Yes." She stated truthfully, feeling his eyes burrowing into her as she avoided his gaze. "But not that day. He escaped, and when I recovered, I tracked him down for a couple of months until I finally found him in East Berlin and ended it."

She sighed. "You see, Erik, I can't be angry with you anymore for getting your revenge. I would be an absolute hypocrite if I continued, but the thing is that I can't forgive you for what you did after killing Shaw." Laurien said from behind gritted teeth, shaking her head angrily. "You had no right to do what you did, trying to take the lives of thousands of innocent men."

"I know." He murmured, making Laurien glance up in surprise that he'd finally admitted it, but she lowered her eyes again, reminding herself not to get her hopes up.

"I broke a promise to myself after I met you and Charles. After Bastijn and Roosje died, I was to never get attached to anyone again. And when we almost lost Charles, I was reminded by what I had vowed, and I didn't know it at the time that I left the mansion to come here, but-" She opened her mouth, but hesitated, the words desperately trying to shove themselves back down her throat as they protested themselves. "Erik, I'm not going back to New York."

Erik's steely blue eyes went wide in panic, as he got to his feet. "What? No, Laurien, you have to go back to them, you're not safe anywhere else. There was a reason why your file was open on the desk in the CIA base, and I doubt that it's anything good. Besides they need you back at the mansion, Charles and the others!"

"No, I can't go through it again, I can't lose anyone else." She mumbled, digging her nails into her arm. "Mme Girard was right, my whole family is gone, Dan was the last person I had left and I snapped his neck!"

Erik suddenly knelt down beside her and grabbed her face, holding it tightly between his hands as he forced her to look into his frighteningly fearful eyes. "Darling, I can't allow you to do this to yourself. After all you've been through, you deserve a family that will love you and keep you safe at all costs, I have no doubt in my mind that they would all lay down their lives to protect you."

"Don't you see that's what I'm fucking afraid of?" She cried out, tears flowing freely from her wide blue eyes as she ripped herself from his grip and stood up. "If anything, I want to be the first to go, I can't live with these horrors in my head for much longer, Erik, and I don't want any more of them."

"Then we'll go to Charles!" He suggested pleadingly. "He can make you forget, and you can live in peace."

"Jesus Christ!" She snapped, throwing her hands up in the air. "It's never that fucking simple!"

"It could be, let's just try."

"What about you then?" She asked, changing the spotlight on him as she felt her blood pumping loudly through her veins, her emotions boiling over. "Don't you deserve a family as well?"

"I have one." He growled.

She let out a sharp humorless laugh that echoed around the small room. "You can't possibly mean the Brotherhood? A team full of mutants who were formerly working for the man who killed your mother in front of you, and the sister of your best friend who you left completely paralyzed on a beach in the middle of nowhere."

"Laurien-"

"It's killing you, Erik, being around them. They're egging you on to do terrible things without even a single thought to the consequences. That cut was a close one, and you haven't even explained these yet." She said; closing the distance between them and gripping the bruises around his neck and jaw line none too gently with her fingertips.

Erik grabbed her wrist tightly, wrenching it away from his face. She stared into his eyes and almost gasped from the sucker punch of emotion that rammed into her as she saw something change in his expression. He opened his mouth to retaliate, his chest heaving, but suddenly changed his mind and placed a firm hand on the back of her neck before pulling her in and capturing her lips with his.

Laurien grunted in surprise, not responding for a moment or two as she tried to comprehend as to what was happening, but she eventually melted into his body as she grabbed a hand full of his hair and deepened the kiss, her pent up frustration getting the best of her. His hands drifted down to the small of her back and pressed her against his pulsating body, his heart beat racing in time with hers. He grabbed her around the waist and pushed her against the wall, placing a leg between her two and methodically rubbing it against her, eliciting a muffled moan of arousal from Laurien as her eyes flashed a dazzling combination of deep purple and gold.

She bit down on his bottom lip, hard enough to draw blood, and he reciprocated with a quick nip of his own before she released him and his mouth traveled down wetly to her collarbone. Laurien gripped his shoulders tightly, using the leverage to wrap her legs around his solid waist and prop her up as he kissed her neck before returning to her mouth. Erik's hands grabbed her thighs and carried her away from the wall and toward the bed, causing her to panic and break away from the kiss.

"No, not here. My old room is a few doors down." She gasped, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.

He nodded understandingly, a small smile pulling at his lips before she kissed him again, her hands clutching at the back of his borrowed shirt, wanting it to be off immediately.

She opened up the door to her room unknowingly with her powers as he carried her out of Dan's room and into hers, before throwing her down on the bed. He ripped off his shirt, revealing the bandages wrapped around his abdomen. For a moment, Laurien was afraid that they might rip his stitches again, but when she glanced up and met his eyes, the thought was pushed to back of her mind, as he climbed on top of her.

 **So yeah... Stuff happened. I had difficulty writing this for that reason exactly, and I've kind of been avoiding writing a sex scene, so most of that stuff happens behind the scenes. Hope you don't mind, but I could if you guys really want it. In other news, I saw Batman V Superman yesterday, and... Oh man, I hated it. I couldn't help but roll my eyes every time Lois Lane had to be saved, like sheesh! Though at least I got to see the trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse on the big screen. Anyways, I've been binge watching Daredevil on Netflix, so that more than makes up for the crappy DC movie. I frickin' love Frank Castle! I highly recommend the series. Even as I'm writing this right now, The Punisher is stabbing some guy with a broken bottle. Yikes!**

 **It's my buddy's birthday tomorrow, so I'm really excited to surprise her with some cupcakes and happy birthday banner.**

 **So I am really freaking out about this chapter, I'm so anxious to know what you guys think. I was tossing and turning over how I was going to deliver the information and will admit that there was a lot of doubt and fear going on. Am I going off the deep end? Or am I doing okay? Thanks again guys, hope you enjoyed and please review!**


	25. Chapter 25

**Hi-ya people! Hope you all had a great week, or at least a better one than I had... Long story short, my classes suck and my favorite character from my favorite TV show died in brutal fashion... Yup. It was rough. All right, so you asked, and I delivered, and I am mortified. It's toned down, but is it enough to change the rating of the story? Let me know. Here's chapter 25, enjoy!**

Laurien let out a soft breathless sigh as she ran her fingers lightly over Erik's exposed heaving chest, carefully tracing the many faint scars that littered his skin as she felt his warm lips against her forehead. The melodious and silky chorus of Jo Stafford's 'No Other Love' rang lazily in her ears from where it played on the record player a few feet away, filling the already hot room with its soft amorous tone.

Laurien was still admittedly out of breath as she glanced up at the ceiling, though she relished in how wonderfully strange her perspiring naked body felt next to Erik's underneath the sheets as he held her in his muscular arms, his firm hand drifting down to rest comfortably on the smooth bare curve of her hip.

Laurien's eyes flitted heavily around her bedroom before they rested on the open window, and even though she could feel the cold wind against her face, it was a necessity, seeing as the room had grown so warm since they'd first burst in an hour or so ago.

Laurien glanced up at Erik with soft violet eyes as he pushed a rogue strand of hair away from her flushed face. "I love it when they turn that shade." He murmured, his pupils dilating subtly as they flicked down to her mouth, before kissing her tenderly.

He tasted of mint and sweat as he nipped gently at her bottom lip, allowing Laurien to roll the sweet flavor along her tongue before she broke away and nuzzled his neck, leaving a trail of delicate bruises in her mouth's wake.

A small hint of a smile appeared on his lips as his hands found her beneath the sheets. Her body squirmed with pleasure, before drawing back and sitting up halfway when he stopped, the sheet slipping off of her shoulders to reveal her pale breasts.

"What this from?" He asked abruptly, his smile fading into a frown as he reached up to touch the large scar on her right shoulder.

"Oh, it's nothing."

"It looks like a gunshot wound."

"Really? I honestly can't remember how I got it." She lied, trying to find some way to change the subject before she narrowed her eyes when he looked at her, noticing that his hand was still resting teasingly on her upper thigh. In retaliation, she reached down and brushed her hand deliberately against him, smirking when she felt him stiffen almost immediately.

Checkmate, she thought, as he suddenly lunged forward and wrapped an arm around her hips, pulling her back down onto the mattress before he got up on top of her and straddled her waist, his questions about the scar completely forgotten.

Small explosions of golden sparks eased their way in front of her eyes as he leaned down slowly and kissed her, softly at first, as Laurien raked her fingers along his arms before grabbing on to his shoulders tightly. His body pushed her down firmly into mattress with his full weight before grabbing her arms and pinning them above her head as his kisses grew strong and deep. She let out a soft moan of mixed desire and frustration, wanting to touch him so badly that it hurt, but at the same time, the sensation of his hands gripping her wrists, restraining her as he kissed her in all the ways he knew she loved, felt so damn good for some reason.

Laurien pushed up against the bed with her pelvis, rubbing against him as she felt him grow harder than before until he released her wrists and grabbed onto her hips, finally thrusting gently into her, though still eliciting a sharp gasp of surprise from her as her hands curled into fists.

"You all right?" He asked breathlessly, his voice low and sultry in her ear as his teeth raked across her cheekbone.

"Yeah." Laurien managed out with difficulty as her chest seized up, the gold sparks quickly glossing over her vision as he moved slowly and rhythmically, hitting all the right places at just the right time.

With her hands now free, she held the back of his neck as she moved along with him, biting down on her lip to keep herself from crying out as the delicious rising mixture of pain and pleasure became almost too much to bare. They needed to be quiet, seeing as Raven's room was just next door, and on second thought, they should have gone to Erik's room instead after Charles' grave announcement.

Laurien closed her eyes lightly and rode out the intense sensation as Erik's fingers left her hips and slowly traveled up her stomach until they reached her tousled hair, grabbing onto a handful as his mouth met hers again.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, though it felt like a blissful eternity before he pulled away from her, a deep groan of pleasure breaking out from behind his red lips as he burrowed his face into her neck, warming her glistening skin with his sweet breath.

"That was amazing." She whispered, her chest heaving mightily as she tried to catch her breath.

"Weren't too bad yourself." Erik murmured, smiling into her collarbone, before earning himself a light smack on the shoulder as she let out a small breathless laugh.

Their smiles slowly disappeared as the heavy weight of reality returned to plague their minds with a sense of foreboding for the then unknown events of the next day. It suddenly became cold, and Laurien snuggled herself up closer to Erik's body as her powers closed the window, careful to not accidentally slam it and shatter the glass.

"Are you scared for tomorrow?" She asked quietly, her fingers returning to their previous task of dragging her fingers over the scarred flesh of his back, feeling him relax under the rhythmic motions.

"Honestly," He started, giving her jaw a quick kiss. "I've been waiting for this day for so long, I don't really know what to feel."

She nodded in understanding, knowing all too well of what he meant. "What about you?" He inquired in return, his voice vibrating against her bones.

"No." She uttered silently as she stroked his dark hair, wondering if he knew the extent of the untamed anxiety that ran through her veins as she repeated the useless string of words in her head, that everything was going to be all right, though she just couldn't shake off the nagging feeling that it would be anything but, as she let his lips capture her own again.

* * *

Laurien held Erik's face between her hands as she kissed him hard on the mouth where he was stretched out on top of her on the bed of her old room, his lips intoxicatingly soft and warm against her own. Erik's fingers gripped at her thighs, pulling them up around his waist as she rubbed against him, drawing a faint groan from his mouth as it dragged down her neck and back up again.

Laurien head fell blissfully to the side as a strong current of ecstasy flowed through her. She opened her eyes lazily, only to feel the sensation of freezing cold water washing over her as her gaze fell upon a photo on her side table.

Laurien ripped her lips away from Erik's as a horrible sinking feeling blossomed in her stomach. She barely heard his small moan of disappointment at the loss of contact as she flipped them over and straddled him down to the mattress. He smirked as he looked up at her. "I would fight you, but under the circumstances, I'll let you have the upper hand this time." He chuckled teasingly, but his smile soon disappeared when he noticed that her eyes had changed to an icy blue. "Laurien?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, I just-."

"What's wrong?" He frowned, concern flashing in his wide eyes. He lifted a hand to brush her waist as she climbed off of him and sat down on the edge of the bed. "I didn't mean to rush you into this, I-"

"No, no, it wasn't you, it's this." She murmured, smiling softly as she picked the picture frame up from where it rested on the side table and handed it to him. "I forgot that this was here."

She watched intently as his eyes searched the photograph that Laurien had taken maybe a week before the incident, of Dan sleeping in one of the armchairs in the living room, in complete uniform, after he'd just come back from a long weekend reunion with his friends from his unit in Korea, his head tilted lazily toward the window. She'd been so proud of the photo when she'd gotten it developed, seeing as all the other ones had ended up being so blurry and unfocused to the point of nothing being discernable.

Though she couldn't see it in the photo, she could remember that Dan had inherited their father's large heavy lidded brown eyes, but their mother's sharp facial features. His angular freckled face was complimented by defining cheekbones and a slight smirk on his thin lips, something so rare and fleeting that it was an absolute treat to witness when it appeared.

His big mop of blond hair had been an absolute mess, as he used to keep it long before he'd left for Korea, down to his shoulders within a month or two of their mother cutting it down to his scalp. When they were younger, Bastijn and Roosje would play with his hair and Dan would sit patiently as his hair was bunched up into multiple little pigtails, but after their parents had died, he usually kept it within army regulation, which always gave off the impression that he was prepared to go back at a moment's notice. After a few years, the twins had complained to the point where he gave in and grew it out again, just for them and their own amusement.

He'd loved them so much, Laurien thought, though she tried not to wonder about what had gone through his head when he realized what he had done, their blood on his hands.

"Can I ask you something?" Erik asked her quietly, breaking her out of her trance.

"Am I going to like what you ask?"

He shook his head slowly, but she grabbed his hand all the same and squeezed. "Shoot."

"What happened when you found Dan?" He inquired, but when she raised an eyebrow in confusion, he clarified. "Before you…"

"Nothing really, he just talked to me." Laurien shrugged, her fingers twitching nervously against the sheets of the bed beneath her. "I was nervous before I found him, angry as well, but I couldn't let it get to my head, seeing as I still had to jump the wall."

"You jumped the Berlin Wall?" He demanded; his voice layered thickly in disbelief.

Laurien smirked at his expression, but quickly sobered when she remembered seeing the other people who were trying to get across. "Yeah, it had just gone up, and it certainly wasn't a pretty sight over there. Only a few hours before I crossed, a young couple was shot trying to get over to the West. I remember feeling completely idiotic knowing that I was attempting to go to the East side."

"Were you alone over there?"

"No, I had a friend with me."

"And they let you go over the Berlin Wall?"

She rolled her eyes as she smacked her forehead with her hand. "Oh God, you sound just like Adela."

Erik frowned. "Who?"

"Never mind." She shook her head dismissively. "Anyways, I made it over with only a few scratches, but I doubt that I would have been able to get across with my life if it weren't for my mutation. I created a diversion further down the wall, which drew all of their spotlights away as I ran across and climbed over."

"I found him in an abandoned apartment a few blocks away, I was entirely prepared to kill him the moment that I saw him, but…" She closed her eyes tight as Dan appeared before her as he had that day, with his disheveled clothes wrapped tightly around his frail body. His face had been hollow and gaunt, like a skeleton that had grey skin stretched over it, his prominent cheekbones casting dark heavy shadows over the rest of his face. He'd looked up at her with his one good eye when she'd entered the old apartment, the other, or what was left of the other, had been painstakingly sewn shut, as if to save others from witnessing the nightmarish gore underneath. "I didn't. I couldn't even speak."

"I guess that unnerved him, that I wasn't getting angry at him or anything of the kind, because he then started yelling these terrible things at me." She closed her eyes, the eerie ring of his hoarse voice echoing through her memories. It had broken so many times, its edges scratchy and weak, as if he hadn't used it in ages. Laurien flinched minutely at another thought that sprang to the forefront of her mind, that maybe it was because he'd been screaming himself to the point where his throat bled. "He begged for a death that I wouldn't grant him. I remember noticing that his eyes got wild, and he lunged at me." She murmured, a vision of Dan's tired bony hands reaching out to her menacing her heart rate as it sent it racing painfully. "It was then when I snapped his neck with my powers. It was by accident, I didn't mean to, but he forced my hand, and in the end, he finished my mission for me."

"It was self defense, no one can blame you for that." Erik said firmly.

"If you say so." She whispered faintly, not fully believing him, but she continued all the same. "I don't really remember what happened after, I only recall a sharp pain through the darkness and waking up in a dumpster on the West side with a hole in my shoulder." She said, pulling down the collar of her shirt to reveal the ragged pink scar that Erik had asked about months ago when they'd been back at the mansion. "I guess I got sloppy coming back over the wall and got shot." She added, wincing as she flexed her arm, the marred skin stretching uncomfortably. "Still hurts every now and then."

He continued to stare wordlessly at her as she felt a wave of something resembling pride and sorrow surge from him. "What?" Laurien asked, wondering if she'd missed something.

"Nothing, it's just-" He started, pushing a wavy strand of hair behind her ear before cupping the back of her neck with his warm hand. "You're even braver than I thought."

She allowed herself a small smile as she finally felt herself breathe easily, like someone had removed the elephant that had been sitting on her lungs for the past year. She leaned in and kissed him on the mouth, running her fingers carefully along his bruised jaw line, wondering if he knew how much his words meant to her.

"Though I still think that you should go back to the mansion." He mumbled against her lips as she groaned minutely in frustration and made to get up, but he grabbed her around the waist before she could get too far. "Wait, just hear me out." He pleaded, pulling her willingly back to the bed. "I'd never forgive myself if you were harmed when I knew that I could have done something to prevent it, if you're at the mansion I can know that you're safe."

"Oh no, you're getting all protective." She laughed, groaning comically as she rolled onto her back, his hands roaming down her stomach as he propped himself up next to her. "I hate that."

"Well, then you're just going to have to deal with it." He murmured, hooking his fingers around the belt loops of her jeans and pulling her flush against him.

"I'm pretty sure that I can guarantee you that if the CIA or anyone else ever comes after me, they're going to receive a nasty surprise."

He laughed. "I don't doubt that."

"Here, I have a compromise." She proposed; an anxious knot suddenly appearing in her stomach as the words spilled from her mouth. "I'll go back to the mansion after I've sold the house, but only if you come with me and talk to Charles."

His face fell drastically as he let go of her. "You know I can't do that."

She frowned. "No, I don't."

"Laurien, I don't want to get into this." He stated tiredly, getting to his feet and walking toward the foggy window on the other side of the room.

"Fine, then I guess I'll just backpack aimlessly through Europe, and maybe, one day, the CIA will join me for tea and biscuits. Oh, that will be a grand old time!" She exclaimed, wildly throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"Laurien." He warned sternly, but she continued, dragging her fingers through her hair in frustration as she stood up as well.

"No, Erik. I've faced my demons here, now it's time to face yours back at the mansion. I need you to be brave one more time, for your own sake and for Charles'."

Erik blinked at her wordlessly, his face somber and pained as he glanced out the window, simultaneously letting her know that she was right.

"Look, I'm not even sorry if I'm being difficult, but I don't want this to be something that you sorely regret in your old age, if you ever get there, which I severely doubt considering the path you're barreling head first down."

He turned back and they stared each other down, a battle being fought within him between his conflicting emotions as a muscle twitched in his jaw. A small sound from the other side of the partly closed door to the bedroom met Laurien's ears as Erik made to speak, but she suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth, effectively silencing him as she pushed him back against the wall with a small thump. He frowned beneath her hand and let out a muffled grunt of annoyance, making to grab her wrist to release himself, when he stopped abruptly as he heard what had startled her as well. From the creaking of a door opening and shutting, they realized that someone else was making their way through the house.

She gave him a quick look before slowly releasing him and creeping toward the bedroom door that was slightly ajar, holding her ear against the opening. She almost jumped out of her skin when a clear voice speaking Dutch pierced through the house. "Hey! You here?"

"It's just Adela." Laurien smirked in relief before turning her head toward the straight-backed metal bender beside her, her face growing serious. "This conversation is by no means over."

"It never is with you." Erik murmured, but she barely heard him as she swung the door open and headed down the hallway, leaving him to scramble to put his shirt back on.

"Hey, you didn't burn the house down." Laurien greeted as she spotted the homemade cake in Franz's hands when he limped over from placing his coat on the hanger by the front door.

"Yeah, but just nearly." Franz said as Laurien took the heavy pan from him and placed it on the counter before running to get him a chair from the dining room. "Sorry, it's a day late, but I think we need to get a new stove, there were sparks flying everywhere."

"Oh, dear. Well, thank you so much. You really didn't have to."

"Are you kidding? It's our pleasure!" Adela exclaimed from where she was trying to grab plates from the cupboard, prompting Laurien to scramble over to help before she strained herself. "I've been dying to try out this new recipe that Franz's grandmother passed down for apple cake, I think that it will be a real…" She trailed off abruptly, causing Laurien to glance up to see what had stalled her, only to see that Adela's gaze was glued on where Erik had just appeared in the kitchen doorway.

"Oh, Adela, Franz, this is Erik, my-" She stopped, searching desperately for a word that was not so bland as 'friend' but not so extreme as 'former lover', but ultimately failing in the end. "My friend from America."

"Huh. A real American." Adela commented, leaning up against the counter with her eyes narrowed in thoughtful suspicion as Erik shook hands with Franz. "So, this isn't Bellamy Whatsit, is it?"

"No." Laurien answered, a small smirk creeping onto her face as she felt the need to tell her that Erik was actually Polish, but Adela didn't give her the chance before she grabbed her arm as she suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, I've got a surprise for you."

"Uh oh, what have you done now?" Laurien exclaimed, almost genuinely nervous as Adela dragged her out of the kitchen.

"Why do you always expect the worst of me?" She asked, throwing her arms up in the air as she waddled over to the living room. "Besides, I'm really excited about this one, so shut up." She said, revealing a small puppy from beneath the folds of the woolen blanket on one of the armchairs.

"Oh my God, he's gorgeous!" Laurien gasped as she knelt down and tentatively held her hand out for the reddish-brown puppy to smell, but instead he licked her fingers, his dark eyes shining charismatically as he stared curiously at her.

"She, actually." Adela corrected before passing the pup into Laurien's arms. "And she is yours."

Laurien's mouth dropped wide open. "What?"

"Yeah, Vimy had a litter of Retriever Husky puppies last month and Mom brought over a basket of them yesterday for us to choose from, I thought you'd like this one for your birthday."

"Oh my God, thank you so much." She gushed; hugging Adela the best she could, considering her stomach and the squirming pup, before moving over to Franz and giving him a quick peck on the cheek in thanks. "Erik, come here." She called to the kitchen in English, smiling brightly as she saw Erik's eyes light up when he noticed the dog in her arms. "Does she have a name?"

"Nope, that's up for you to decide. I let Franz name ours."

"Little Louis has already chewed up two of my shoes and a curtain." Franz commented from his seat, his tone stern, but his green eyes were brimming with pride.

Laurien glanced up at Erik as he gently stroked the pup's head, meeting his tender blue gaze before looking down at the little creature in her arms who was nibbling at her fingers with his tiny white teeth. "I'll have to think about it." She finally said, a plan being decided in her mind at the same time that she spoke, because some way or another, Erik was going to speak to Charles as soon as she could arrange it, whether he liked it or not.

 **Okay, so I've always wanted to put a puppy in this story, ever since the beginning. I'm hoping that it will be kind of like a therapy dog for Laurien and the others at the mansion, that is, if she ever goes back? Remains to be seen... Anyway, nothing really new this week, but the X Company Season Finale, where I cried and cried again. I honestly hate searching for a new favorite character, it's just like Robb Stark from Game of Thrones all over again. Spoilers! Well, anywho, please let me know what you thought about this chapter, it was obviously a difficult one to write, and one that made me blush more than I care to mention. Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed. Please review!**


	26. Chapter 26

**Hey, everyone! Hope everyone had a great two or three weeks, I honestly can't remember how long it has been... So, sorry for the long wait. Here's chapter 26! Enjoy!**

"Little rascal, where have you gone?" Laurien muttered under her breath as she peaked underneath one of the many couches, groaning as her aching joints let her know of their displeasure when she tried to get to her feet. "Fuck, I'm getting old."

She moved over to the next armchair, but her mouth twisted into a grimace as she thought about the prospect of getting down on her hands and knees again. She was ultimately saved from that task when her ears picked up the sound of clumsy pattering paws on the hardwood. She spun around and darted over to where Shasta was scrambling toward the stairs, scooping her up in her arms with a small exclamation of triumph.

"Oh, you troublemaker!" Laurien cooed affectionately into the puppy's red fur, kissing her head as she carried her over to her makeshift bed that Laurien had layered with as many blankets as she could manage, next to all the other cardboard boxes that held her items. As she set her down, Shasta's big brown eyes looked up at her in mock innocence as Laurien glanced over at the feathery mess that Shasta had made by ripping up one of the couch pillows. "What am I going to do with you?" She asked, smiling tiredly as the pup tilted her head to the side in a response.

Shasta had grown to almost twice her original size over the past month, though it seemed as though her paws growing were far faster than of the rest of her body, which made walking and running a difficult feat to perform without tripping and falling forward onto her cute little face. But it at least meant that Laurien could keep up with her, seeing as her joints had been acting up badly of late.

When Laurien had visited Adela earlier that day, where she was now situated until further notice in the bed of her and Franz's house, she had deduced that it had something to do with the time of the year and the cold weather, but Laurien was afraid that arthritis had settled in her knees and fingers, as she recalled that her mother had had the same issue.

"Ah, becoming your mother. There's a nightmare for you." She had stated, biting her lip comically.

"Hey, I'll have you know that I would be happy to become my mother." Laurien retorted, not quite sure whether Adela was joking or not, seeing as the baby had some odd effects on her brain at the moment.

"Not your mother, you idiot, I meant my mother." She said testily, taking a voracious bite out of her piece of raspberry pumpkin cake that Laurien had made her, because Adela had specifically asked for those two ingredients in something of Laurien's choosing. She didn't question it, she just made the cake.

"What wrong with becoming your mother? She's a lovely lady." Laurien asked, frowning as she popped a small bit of cake in her mouth and grimaced at the odd flavor.

"Well, yes, she's great and all, but-" She stopped; her fork stalled half way on its trip to her mouth.

Laurien waited for a moment before prodding Adela's elbow, suddenly afraid that something was wrong. "Adela?"

The brunette soon snapped out of it and slowly set her fork down next to the half eaten piece of cake on her plate before grabbing Laurien's hand and placing it on her swollen belly. Laurien was startled by her change in behavior, but quickly caught on as she felt the subtle vibrations along the wall of Adela's stomach.

"She's kicking." Adela whispered, her mouth widening into a small smile as her eyes met Laurien's fascinated gaze.

"Wow." Laurien breathed quietly, Adela's mood becoming infectious as it seeped through her skin, filling her with an immense sensation of purpose and anxiety. "She?"

"I have an intuition about these sort of things." She said, waving her hand about before she looked back down at her stomach "There's a tiny human being inside me." She murmured, rubbing her hands over her belly. "And soon it will be your turn too, Laur."

"Oh, I don't think so." Laurien blurted out, a flare of panic erupting in her stomach at the very mention of her having children. "I'm not sure that it's for me."

"Oh, hush you. I think that you'll find yourself warming up to the idea very soon." Adela said knowingly, as if she were a psychic foretelling her future. "What with that gorgeous American in your house."

Laurien almost snorted in amusement at the very thought. "No, Erik's… well. He's not one for settling down."

"I don't know, from the way he looks at you…"

"Mmm Mmmm." She hummed, smiling as she shook her head. "I don't want to hear one more word about it."

"But-"

"Nope."

Adela finally conceded and held out her hand for Laurien to take in hers. "Just promise me that you'll just settle down somewhere that makes you happy and plant roots. Deep ones."

"I promise." Laurien said, bringing Adela's hand to her lips before hugging her tightly, taking a lasting breath of her sweet perfume. She reluctantly let go and gave Franz a goodbye hug and kiss as well, before heading back to her house to clean up the last bits. It had admittedly taken a while to pack everything up, considering Laurien's joints that made her feel like the tin man and the memories that were loaded in each and every item that she pulled out. Though she was very thankful that there hadn't been that much of a hurry to pack everything up, as Charles had told her so over the phone a few weeks earlier.

"We're not going anywhere, take all the time that you need." Charles had said when she'd fretted over how she wasn't sure what timeline she was on for coming back to the mansion, even though at the time, she still wasn't positive on if she was coming back at all.

"Thanks. What have I missed over there?"

"Oh, nothing much, Hank has started working on the blueprints for the new cerebro machine, so we'll need your help with that when you get back."

"Sure thing, that'd be fun." She said, nodding to herself.

"And there hasn't been much else, though the house has been a little lonely without you here." He added, his tone light but accidentally filled to the brim with subtext.

Though he probably hadn't meant it that way, a swell of guilt rose painfully in her chest, but she quickly pushed it down as a new voice arose from the other end of the line.

"Is that Laurien?" Sean's voice asked faintly through the receiver.

"Yes, it is." Charles responded before she heard the muffled scrapings of him passing over the phone to the redhead.

"Hi-ya." She exclaimed, happy to hear his voice for the first time in over a month. "How are you?"

"Hey, I'm good, Laur." Sean replied jovially. "Look, can you do me a favor and pick me up some chocolate on your way back?"

"Sure, Sean." Laurien chuckled, leaning up against the counter as she grabbed a pen and paper. "Any preference of what kind you want?"

There was a short pause before he responded. "The good kind."

"Oh, of course, why did I even ask?" She said, smiling as she let the pen slip through her fingers.

"All right, see you soon."

"Bye bud." She called.

Charles returned to the line, chuckling. "Yeah, they've missed you a lot, especially your cooking." He said, eliciting a small laugh from Laurien. "The meals have been absolute garbage these last couple of weeks."

"What? I thought Sean could cook?" She asked, remembering all the times that he'd made pasta.

"No, far from it actually. Goodness, I never want to see another box of cheesy macaroni again."

"Aw, Charles." She cooed teasingly. "You know I had to live off those for three years when I was in university."

"You poor thing, how did you survive?" He gasped comically, making her heart feel lighter than air as she laughed.

"I don't know honestly. Roosje and Bastijn would send biscuits sometimes, but my roommates liked them too much for me to ration them."

There was another pause from the other side of the line, and for a moment, Laurien was afraid that she'd lost him somehow. When he finally spoke, his voice was unnaturally low and tight. "How's Erik?"

She was taken aback at the question, leaving her scrambling to find an answer. "Um, he's good, I guess. Still up to stupidly reckless shenanigans with the Brotherhood, but other than that, he's good." She winced the moment that the word 'shenanigans' left her mouth, but trekked on arduously. "Charles, I know it's a sore subject after everything that he's done, but would you be at all against me bringing him back with me to talk to you?"

He paused again, unnerving Laurien beyond belief. "Did he ask you to ask me?"

"No, he doesn't even know that I'm asking." She said tentatively, but decided to just come out with the truth. "He'd actually be rather angry if he knew that I was telling you this, but he's going down a bad path that I don't think I can stop him from going down and I believe that he'll listen to you."

"And what if he doesn't?"

Laurien let out a deep breath, knowing that the scenario was always a possibility. "Then, well, screw him. We've done all we can." She said, fiddling nervously with the pen between her fingers. "But yesterday he came back to the house with a broken wrist, and I don't know how long it's going to be before it's a broken neck or even worse. You know more than anyone that he's a danger to himself, as well as others around him, and I think that if he would listen to anyone, it would be you, but only if you're comfortable with it."

He didn't respond for a while, but when he did, he said "All right." and Laurien finally allowed herself to breathe, not sure if the wave of heat she felt wash over her was one of relief or fear.

She knew she had to ask, because over the past month, Laurien would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to find Erik just entering through the door, barely giving himself enough time to take off his cape and helmet before he flopped down onto the bed. His arms would immediately wrap around her waist and pull her body snuggly against his, as he nuzzled his tired face into the crook of her neck, his subtly chapped lips brushing gently against her warm skin.

By the time that she woke up the next morning, he would already be gone, out on another mission for the brotherhood. As the days turned into weeks of this new routine, Laurien couldn't help but feel concerned as she found small stains of blood on the hardwood floor. She stayed up, sitting upright in her bed until three in the morning when she heard the telltale burst of vapors from the living room. Her chest caved beneath the anxious weight of what new bodily horrors she might see, as his footsteps grew louder until the door creaked open to reveal an exhausted metal bender before her.

"What are you doing up?" He asked, his shadowed face frowning in confusion, before quickly twisting into a smile as he removed his helmet and closed the door behind him.

"Waiting for you." She said as innocently as she could, trying to hide the relief in her voice at seeing him in one piece. As he moved over to the table, Laurien noticed that his usually strong and sure steps were now uneven and lopsided, as if he were favoring his right leg.

"Take off your pants." She demanded suddenly, taking even herself off guard.

He blinked in surprise. "What?"

"You heard me." She said; her eyebrows rising as she nodded down at his legs.

He hesitated, chuckling at her. "You know I like it better when you do the same."

She shook her head, a smirk pulling at her reluctant lips. "Not tonight, darling."

Erik let out a deep sigh before he pulled down his crimson pants, revealing the bloody mess of his thigh and confirming what she'd suspected.

She stared blank faced at the wound for a moment before tipping backwards and rolling onto her back with a groan. "Erik." She managed from behind her teeth.

"Look, it was an accident." Erik explained as he pulled up his pants again before limping over to where she sat on the bed, putting one of his warm hands on her knee. "One of the bullets slipped through my grasp, it won't happen again."

She glanced down at the gaping hole again, before she narrowed her eyes at his easy demeanor. "Look, I don't want to become the whiny girlfriend, but I'm getting bloody tired of stitching you up, you know that right?"

He lifted his shoulders in a shrug, grinning sheepishly at her before he gave her nose a quick peck. "You tell me every time."

"And for that exact reason." She had sighed, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. "Now go sit on the counter."

She smiled to herself as Shasta nibbled on her fingers, but it quickly disappeared when she remembered that some homecomings hadn't been as happy as others. Only a week ago, Laurien had been down in the basement, clearing up the last of the remnants of her family's old things, when she heard a dull thud from the ceiling as small particles of dust floated down onto her hair. Wondering if Shasta had knocked over something heavy again, she'd made her way up the stairs, wiping her grime smeared hands on a rag as she jumped over the faulty step, only to see the tail end of Erik's red cape disappearing through the doorway to the kitchen.

Laurien frowned. Usually Erik didn't come home until it was very late, but over the past week and a half, she hadn't seen him at all. She treaded carefully into the kitchen and was greeted by his red leather clad back as he faced away from her, his hands steadying himself on the counter.

She didn't think anything of it at first, seeing as that was his usual stance when he was thinking, so she continued over to the sink and let the cold water wash the dirt from her hands, staying silent until she heard the rustle of his clothes as he turned around.

"I've sorted through everything in my Aunt's room and the basement, but I still have to go through Dan's things and the twins' bedroom, I was wondering if you could help me with that if you've got the time?"

He didn't respond, and when she looked up at him to see what was wrong, she was hit with a wave of guilt and sadness, making her freeze the very moment that she saw him. The front of his red clothes were stained sporadically with a dark substance that emitted the sour odor of death from the soaked layers of fabric, spreading all the way from his hips to the shockingly colorless flesh of his throat. Fear flowed freely through Laurien's veins when she saw the deathly grim expression face, blood spattered across it like a constellation of stars, the bloodshot sclera of his blank eyes were almost as red as his costume.

"Erik?" She asked tentatively, her voice wavering slightly as his gaze suddenly shifts and meets hers.

He opened his mouth slightly, his brow furrowing when no sound came out. He cleared his throat with difficulty and finally spoke, his voice soft, but painfully hoarse. "Angel's dead."

Laurien felt her stomach plummet. "What?" She breathed, images of the girl she'd met back at the CIA base suddenly flashed to the forefront of her mind. Her mysterious dark eyes and luscious long black hair that had cascaded down her shoulders that had the markings of her insect-like wings tattooed upon them. "What happened?"

Erik shook his head slowly, his face twisting into a grimace as he ran a gloved hand through his hair. "We were on a mission in San Francisco and-" He broke off, his eyes growing wide as he clenched his jaw tightly. "They took her."

"Who took her?"

He shook his head again, this time a bit more vigorously; his eyes bore into the cabinet adjacent to him. "I don't know, but we found them."

"They experimented on her." He ground out, his hands curled into tight fists against the cold counter; the skin over his knuckles was blossoming with dark purple bruises and was caked in dry blood. "And when they were done, they butchered her like a cattle ready for slaughter."

Laurien couldn't even fathom the scenarios that popped into her head as she sank down to the floor with him, her blue eyes wide and scared as she imagined the atrocities that the unknown men could've inflicted on Angel. "Erik." She whispered, her chest barely moving as her breaths came out in shallow rasps.

"You need to go back to Charles and the others." He urged, blinking rapidly as he stared at the ground. "I can't lose you that way. I just can't."

She reached her hands out and held his face between her hands, willing him to just look at her and breathe. "You won't." She murmured, her blue eyes wide and scared as she knew that it wasn't really within her control, because things would happen whether she wished them to or not. Even so, she still repeated her words as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a tight hug. "You won't, I promise."

Laurien shuddered to think of that day, though it solidified her final decision to go back to the mansion and the others. She glanced back down at Shasta, where she sat lazily on her bed, her jaws opening up wide as she yawned and her pink tongue curling up before she finally closed her mouth. Laurien reached down and scratched her behind the ears as she waited for the puff of smoke that would signal her departure from the house of woe.

Out of a new habit, she slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out the photo of her mother and the mysterious woman by the name of Sera. The edges of the photograph had become worn and frayed over the years, yet it was uncanny how much Laurien resembled the woman, potentially even more than her own mother. The same solid jawbone and high cheekbones, even the same sad smile that seeped through without her knowledge.

Laurien had admittedly memorized every single aspect of the photo in fear that it might get destroyed somehow, so that Charles would be able to see it in her head if all else failed. She'd memorized everything from the soft curl of the woman's wavy hair that had been pinned up in a pretty bun, to the distinct checkered pattern of the black and white dress that she wore. Even though she couldn't quite tell from the photo, Laurien wondered if she was wearing the same dark red lipstick that she'd worn in her vision of her in Charles' study.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance in the living room of Azazel and Erik, who was thankfully not wearing the ridiculous costume, but a dark shirt, a pair of grey slacks, and his leather jacket that she'd grabbed onto to throw him against a tree in the forest by the CIA. She could still see the marks where her fingernails had dug into the hard leather. She smirked inwardly, but didn't let seep to her exterior as she gathered Shasta in her arms and walked toward them, being a bit wary of the demon mutant, seeing as the memories of the attack had still not faded at all.

"Hi." She greeted Erik with a quick kiss on the mouth before letting his hand slip into hers.

"You ready?" He asked gently, squeezing her hand.

She took one last long look at the house surrounding her, seeing the old peeling wallpaper with slight shadows where picture frames used to hang, and the disproportionate kitchen to living room ratio that had irked her for so many years. The uneven step that would, from then on, be someone else's problem to curse loudly over, the mismatched furniture that Laurien had decided to leave behind for the new buyers, and the scuffed floorboards that held the footprints of all those you'd passed within their layers.

Her gaze slowly shifted over to the hallway that had been, and what would probably still be, the subject of the majority of her nightmares. She wondered if the new buyers knew as to what had happened in this house, the bloodshed and the tears. She silently hoped that they did, because they surely needed to be prepared for when the ghosts finally awake from their graves.

She took a deep breath and nodded to no one in particular. With a small crack, the house in Belgium suddenly disappeared and was immediately replaced with her room at the mansion, with all the boxes from the house all piled up around her.

Laurien felt her knees buckle unexpectedly, but Erik quickly caught her before she hit the ground. "Don't worry, happens to everyone the first time." He said, as he helped her into one of the nearby armchairs, setting Shasta down gently on the carpet.

"Wow." She groaned, lifting a hand to her temple in an effort to ease the pressure that had arisen in her head. "That's some kick."

The feeling soon passed and she lifted herself out of the armchair before turning to Erik. "Charles must know that we're here by now. You ready?"

The expression on Erik's face caused her stomach to plummet and she suddenly knew what was going through his head. "You're leaving, aren't you?" She murmured slowly, the weight of it all crashing down on her. "You're not even going to talk to him."

He nodded, making to get closer to her but wisely thought better of it, and stayed, his blue eyes glistening apologetically. "There's more I need to do, and I couldn't do it knowing that you were in danger, you have to understand."

She bit her lip and glanced down at her feet, realizing what he meant. "Yeah, I do, but you're backing out of our deal." Laurien accused, feeling an argument rising in her chest, but she quelled it with a deep breath as she looked up and met his gaze again, her vision flashing a dark green. "Never mind, I can't do this anymore."

"Laurien."

"No. Look, Erik, I didn't want to play this card, but if you don't talk to Charles, then I'm finished with this." She stated firmly, ignoring the fact that Azazel was still in the room. "You won't even face up to what you've done or whom you've done it to. And I can't condone that, so I've made my choice, and if you've decided on yours, then it's time that you've left, because there's nothing else to say."

Erik stared at her solemnly, his chest slowly rising up and down against the fabric of his jacket as he mulled her words over in his head, before he finally nodded. "I guess this is goodbye then."

"I guess so." She whispered, the words reluctantly rolling off her tongue.

The silence in the room was deafening to the point where Laurien could hear the subtle croon of Edith Piaf's Milord being played somewhere out in the hallway, soon followed by the sound of Charles' wheelchair, prompting Laurien to quickly turn to Azazel and utter her first ever words to him. "Спасибо. Вы заботиться о Erik."

She saw Erik frown in the corner of her eye as the red mutant nodded at her, before grabbing Erik's hand and vanishing in a wisp of red vapor. She allowed herself a small moment of reprieve before the door opened up behind her, and she was almost bowled over by Sean's body colliding with her, hugging her so tightly that she thought she might split in half.

He was soon followed by Alex, who, once Sean let go of her, picked her up and spun her around. "Oh man, please never leave for that long ever again!" He exclaimed from her elbow as the room was reduced to a vortex of blurs until he put her down.

She was so dizzy that she almost fell backwards, but caught herself as she saw Hank wheeling Charles into the room, a smile appearing on her face as she dashed over and gave Hank a big bear hug. "This is a surprise, we didn't think you'd be back until next week." He commented, burying his face into her shoulder.

"Just couldn't wait to get back." She stated truthfully as she let him go and straightened his glasses on his nose that she'd accidentally bumped when hugging him.

She then moved to Charles, whose face lit up as her gold eyes met his. "Welcome home, Laurien." He greeted, beaming up at her, and she didn't know why, but his words made her breath catch in her throat. She bent down and hugged him tight, relishing in how good it felt to be in his embrace, as if it was, in fact, like coming home.

She kissed him quickly on the cheek before standing up again, noticing that there was a question on his face as he looked up at her. She bit her lip and shook her head, trying not to notice how his energy fell with her slight motion, before he rapidly busied himself with getting acquainted with Shasta, their new family member that Sean held lovingly in his arms.

 **So that was Chapter 26, hope you guys liked it. In other news, I got another hermit crab around a week ago, to keep Ozymandias company, and I named him Machina, (as in Ex Machina). I was really enjoying having him until I got distracted while watching Captain America: Winter Soldier, that I forgot to keep my hand flat while I held Machina, and he grabbed onto a fold of my skin and pinched so hard and for so long that it broke the skin. After a lot of swearing, I forgave him, but we're still getting used to one another, and man, has he got a grip! Also, Captain America: Civil War comes out in a week, and X Men: Apocalypse in a few weeks, I'm so excited! The one thing I'm worried about is that they're showing a lot in promos and such, I just hope that there's still more that they haven't shown us just yet. Another thing, I got surprised by my dad last week and he took me to a Paul McCartney concert! Man, for a 70 year old guy, he can still rock! I'm looking forward to adding some Beatles references to the story.**

 **Anywho, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, thank you for reading and please leave a review! Thanks!**


	27. Chapter 27

**Hey! Here's chapter 27! A chapter that I wrote in maybe seven hours, so please forgive me if there are any mistakes. Enjoy!**

Laurien awoke abruptly to the sound of scratching on the solid oak door to her bedroom of the mansion. She raised her heavy head up off the desk covered in nursing course papers, upon which she'd fallen asleep, only to frown when she noticed that something was stuck to her cheek. She lifted her hand and carefully removed the page from her skin, wincing as it felt like ripping off a bandage. She set it down before her on the desk, smiling sleepily as she recognized the bright faces of the Fleischer's in the glossy photo, now a happy little family of three.

Adela and Franz held their daughter between them where they sat snuggled up in their bed. Saskia was absolutely gorgeous, her big brown eyes nearly dwarfing the rest of her beaming face as her tiny hand, no bigger than a daisy, held onto Franz's fingers.

The photo had accompanied a letter that Laurien had only received yesterday, consisting of Adela apologizing for how long it had taken for her to write and send the photo, seeing as Saskia had been born in early March and the beginnings of winter winds had just started sweeping through the fields surrounding the Xavier mansion.

"The new tenants are a right menace." She wrote in loopy letters, making Laurien smirk as if she could actually hear Adela's voice exaggerating every syllable. "They have barely even said hello, and they play their music without ceasing the entire night, to the point that I sometimes wonder how many record player needles they go through in a week."

The note would continue for at least five pages before it ended on a sad note, with Adela stating that her mother had died of a heart attack back in June. "I know I gave her a lot of flack, but I really do miss her. And I miss you too, dumb ass. Please come visit soon, Saskia needs to meet her godmother some time before she turns thirty."

This last part had taken Laurien by surprise. "Godmother." She murmured as she reread the sentence, wondering if she'd read it wrong the first time, but there it was, clearly written in the blue inked looped letters of Adela's hand.

She was flattered, of course, but even the thought of taking on a role that even included the word 'mother' in its title, completely terrified her. Besides, she wasn't even quite sure how the godmother thing even worked, or if it even applied to her, seeing as she wasn't Christian.

Laurien placed the photo carefully in the corner of a picture frame that held the picture of Dan sitting asleep in his uniform, one of the items that she'd brought back with her from Belgium.

She'd be lying if she said that it didn't still bother her, seeing as she'd almost dislocated Sean's arm last month when he snuck up behind her, wearing a Halloween mask that he'd bought when they'd gone out with the students to get costumes. She'd scared the hell out of Sean and the five kids when she'd pinned Sean up against the wall of the store with his arm yanked up behind his back, nearly pulling it out of his socket.

Laurien shook her head to rid herself of the memory, and got out of her chair to investigate the scratching sound at the door. She had just turned the handle when it suddenly flew wide open as Shasta threw her weight at the door, bounding into Laurien's room happily with her tongue lolling out of her mouth.

Shasta had almost grown up to Laurien's mid thigh, big enough to push her over if she wanted immediate snuggles, and Laurien was forced to comply, seeing as Shasta would sit on her until she did so. She'd also become quite a hit with the students, constantly convincing them to abandon everything they were doing to either pat her or play outside with her, which would sometimes become a problem if they were supposed to be studying.

"Hi, Shazzie." Laurien cooed as the red furred dog jumped up onto her bed, only to leap into Laurien's arms unexpectedly and lick her face repeatedly until her cheeks were shining with drool. "Oh, God, you need a mint." She muttered, wiping her face on her sleeve.

Laurien proceeded to carry Shasta out into the hallway as the pup rested her head on her shoulder. Laurien had caught on to the fact that Shasta did this whenever she felt a storm coming, though on some other occasions, she would jump onto Charles' lap and let the soft electric buzz of his wheelchair lull her to sleep. Charles didn't seem to mind, in fact he would let some of the younger students have rides on his wheelchair in the kitchen when Laurien and Alex were making their breakfasts, usually leading to either something getting toppled over or them all falling over in fits of laughter.

Laurien carried Shasta all the way down to her classroom, where she was almost run into by three of her students who'd sprinted around the corner.

"Oh, sorry, Miss Van Tiel." The purple haired boy apologized.

"That's all right, Silas." She said kindly as she struggled to keep Shasta from wriggling out of her arms, before eventually lowering her to the ground so she could receive her pats from the students. "Where are you three going so quickly?"

"We were actually looking for you." Peggy replied, the eldest of the three. "We got our Frisbee stuck on the roof."

Laurien couldn't help but smile. "Again?"

They nodded bashfully and led her outside to where they had lost the Frisbee. Laurien could just see the edge of the yellow disk peaking out from the roof, and it took her all of two seconds to grab onto it with her powers and lower it into Silas' hands as Lucy, the youngest of the three siblings, clapped her hands excitedly. Laurien knew that it wouldn't be long before she was out there again, seeing as Lucy's super strength, and admittedly terrible aim meant that a lot of things would be displaced upon the roof in the near future.

Once they'd gotten Cerebro back online, their names had been first on the list and therefore the first that they'd paid a visit to on their quest for students. They had been the only mutant siblings that Laurien had ever heard of, though that quickly changed as they continued down the list.

They had around twelve students so far, without including Laurien and the others, and even though she thought that Charles would've been disappointed with their small numbers, she was surprised to feel the strong waves of hope and pride that he emitted at the fact that their school was in business, in turn making Laurien become giddy with second hand excitement.

He'd quelled her fears when she'd confessed the extreme anxiety that had arisen in her chest with the arrival of the students during one of their mind exercise sessions.

"I'm afraid as well." He'd stated gently, squeezing her hand. "Every time I think about it, I keep imagining the entire mansion just bursting into a catastrophe of flames, burning down to nothing cinders and ash." He chuckled, but then spotted the look on her face and retracted his statement as quickly as he could. "But then again, it could go absolutely wonderfully. Think of all the students that could walk these halls, everything that they could learn from us, and what we could learn from them. All of it going towards a brighter future."

Laurien gave him a small smile, feeling the majority of her worries melt away for the time being, an effect that he always seemed to give her when they were together, though one aspect still bothered her. Upon arriving back at the mansion from her trip to Belgium, one of the first things that Laurien talked to Charles about was the photo. She'd pulled the piece of frayed paper from her pocket and given it to him, watching his face carefully as his blue eyes searched the photo.

To her utmost disappointment, he didn't react. "I'm sorry, I don't recognize her." He said as he held the photo as if it was extremely delicate.

She frowned and opened up her mouth to explain what she'd seen in the vision when he'd touched her on the beach, but suddenly found that she couldn't remember what she was going to say. Severely annoyed, she decided to go unpack her things, heading down the hallway and in the meanwhile, involuntarily forgetting about the photo.

After helping the kids get their Frisbee, Laurien walked back to her classroom with Shasta following right on her heels, wanting to prepare herself for her upcoming English and French classes that afternoon. Even though she was still in the middle of completing her nursing degree, she agreed to take on a few teaching positions as well, which was surprisingly difficult, even considering the fact that they only had twelve students. She'd only made it half way through preparing her lessons and correcting their quizzes when Charles rolled through the door to the classroom, holding two cups of tea in his hands.

"Here." He said, smiling as he handed her one of the cups. "English Breakfast, milk, two sugar, just as you like it."

"Oh, thank you, Charles." She murmured gratefully as the heat from the cup warmed her aching hands. "This is just what I needed."

"I know." Charles grinned slyly as he took a sip from his cup.

Laurien scoffed playfully, narrowing her eyes at him as she unconsciously studied the way that a small curl of hair fell lazily onto his forehead.

"How many more of those have you got?" He asked, nodding his head toward the quizzes.

She sighed before setting her cup down on her desk and running a hand tiredly through her long wavy hair. "Maybe seven, I don't know."

"What's on today's schedule?"

"I was hoping to get started on To Kill A Mockingbird with some of the older kids and then reading some poetry with the younger ones."

"Nice, what poet will you read them? E.E. Cummings? Edgar Allan Poe?"

She blushed. "Doctor Seuss."

He stared at her for a moment before nodding. "That's a good choice, I can see the great benefits in his work." He stated kindly, but she wasn't having any of it.

"Oh, please shut up, you're such a terrible liar." She chided, laughing as she slapped his arm. "What I don't understand is why you have me teaching English when it isn't even my first language."

"But you're so good at it!" He exclaimed. "Besides, how many languages is it now? Seven? Eight?"

It was actually six, but she didn't mention it, taking a long sip of her tea as she pondered her options. "I don't think that Lucy and Ivan would exactly appreciate Poe at their age, I don't want to add more nightmares to the ones that The Wizard of Oz has already given them."

Charles nodded gravely, but then frowned. "What's wrong with The Wizard of Oz?"

She raised a questioning eyebrow at him. "What do you mean what's wrong with it? Didn't you ever watch it as a child?"

"No."

"Then you will never understand how terrifying those flying monkeys are through the eyes of a child." She suddenly shivered, despite the warmth that resided in her stomach. "I wouldn't sleep for over a week after watching it, and the only way that I could ever get a wink was if I cuddled with the wooden bunny figure that my Opa had carved."

Charles opened his mouth, but then wisely closed it before moving on to something else. "What have you got going on this evening?" He asked, catching Laurien off guard with a sudden wave of anxiety that flowed off of him.

"Nothing really." She said truthfully, knowing that it would usually just be her either rereading Lord of the Flies or studying for an upcoming nursing exam. "Why? What's up?"

Charles rubbed the back of his neck anxiously, letting Laurien know that whatever was weighing on his mind was heavy. "I was just wondering if, you know, you'd like to-"

He was suddenly cut off by the arrival of Alex and Hank at the door to the classroom. "Prof, Laur, you've got to see this."

"What is it?" Laurien asked fearfully, their expressions grave and angry.

"Just come on." Alex urged, prompting Laurien and Charles to follow them to the common room where all the other students were crowded around the television. A large CBS news bulletin had appeared on the screen, something that didn't usually show up unless something terrible had happened.

"How long has this been like this?" Charles asked.

"Only for a few seconds." Alex explained hurriedly. "We were in the middle of watching As The World Turns, naturally."

"Naturally." Sean piped in from where he sat uncharacteristically upright in one of the armchairs.

"And then the screen just went black, and this showed up a few seconds later."

"Shush, everyone, they're starting to talk."

"Here is a news bulletin from CBS news, in Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas, and the first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by the shooting."

There was a loud collective gasp from the room, and the students began to murmur in shock until Sean shushed them all again, allowing the strong voice of the newscaster to echo in their ears.

"-Perhaps could be fatal. President Kennedy has been shot by a would-be assassin in Dallas, Texas. Stay tuned to CBS news for further details."

The screen then switched to a commercial where a pendulum swings back and forth until a cup of coffee suddenly comes into frame, leaving the entire room in a state of utter disbelief.

"Jesus Christ." Laurien murmured from behind her hand that she held to her mouth.

"Do they know if he was shot in the head or something?" A student asked.

"Dallas isn't all too far from here, is it?" Another commented, but before anyone else could say anything, Charles' voice rang out calmly throughout the room.

"I know you are all concerned, but I do not believe that there is anything to be afraid of, though I think that it would be best if everyone stayed inside until further notice, just as a precautionary measure."

The students rose from their seats on the ground and the armchairs before they sidled out of the common room, leaving the adults alone to talk.

"What are we going to do?" Sean asked.

"There's nothing we can do." Laurien stated plainly, still mulling over the information in her head. "What's done is done."

"It can't be." He protested. "We're the X-Men, we save the world and stuff. That includes presidents as well."

"X-Men?" Alex repeated, unimpressed. "When did that get voted on, because I sure wasn't there."

"Look, can we focus on what's important right now?" Hank urged, running a clawed hand through his blue fur. "We need to deal with the students right now, a lot of them are probably scared and we need-"

He was cut off again by the steady voice of the newscaster suddenly speaking through the speakers of the television, setting them all on edge. "We now have new information regarding the assassination attempt of President Kennedy. The Secret Service have apprehended a suspect by the name of Erik Lensherr, and-"

The sound almost seemed to cut out completely for Laurien the moment that she heard his name being said. She stared unseeingly at the television screen, knowing that the others were doing the same, as Erik's face appeared, with what seemed to be his passport photo. She could barely breathe, it was almost as if an elephant was sitting on her chest and wouldn't let up. Not knowing what to do, she turned her head and saw Charles rest his head back against the headrest of his chair, his blue eyes looking up despairingly at the ceiling before his eyes slowly rested on hers, a quiet message passing between the two of them.

She felt her vision flash a dark green as a small voice arose from the back of her head, its tone hushed and reserved, but it still spoke volumes.

"You're not surprised, are you?"

And the truth was, she wasn't.

 **All right, so I remember saying that Days of Future Past storyline wasn't going to show up for a while, but I've changed my mind, and its first chapter will be the next upcoming one. (I hope!) I don't know if I'm going to start a new story for this part of Laurien's journey, where it is separate from this part, or if I'll just keep adding onto this one. Please let me know what you prefer.**

 **So, guys, I had a really really bad week, and it has been difficult lately. Do you ever get that feeling like it doesn't matter how much sleep you get, you just know that you're going to be tired anyways? That seems to be my life at the moment... So could you please review to make me feel better? It really does cheer me up to hear from you guys and there hasn't really been all that many reviews lately. Please?**

 **I've also been hearing that the early reviews for X-Men: Apocalypse have just been meh, so I've been worrying about that as well.**

 **Anywho, I don't want to be a downer, so I'll leave you with some good news, In other news, I finally saw Captain America: Civil War yesterday! It was great, and I will say no spoilers, so don't worry, but I absolutely am in love with Black Panther, Bucky Barnes and Spider Man!**

 **Alright, thank you so much! Hope you all enjoyed and please review!**


	28. Chapter 28

**Hey! Another chapter within a week! Yay! Hope you guys enjoy!**

 _January 23rd 1973_

Laurien pressed her face hard into the shag carpet of her living room, resisting the sudden urge to bang her head into the ground as another steady agonizing pulsation cut through her forehead. She gritted her teeth and groaned, her fingernails digging into her scalp as she curled in on herself.

Tears were streaming from her eyes as she willed for it to stop, each pulsation bringing the sensation of a sledgehammer being smashed into her frontal cortex, only for it to be followed by its aftermath of a chainsaw rattling against her skull.

She let out a hoarse sob as a particularly cruel pang of pain ripped through her, prompting her to grip at the shag carpet before ripping out a giant chunk and clenching it tightly in her fist. She barely flinched at the crash of her cutlery drawer being ripped out of its spot and the clatter of all the utensils hitting the ground, her only reaction is to frantically pin her hands beneath her knees, afraid that her powers might grab onto something else.

After who knows how much longer, the pulsations began to finally relent, allowing Laurien to gradually relax her body as the pain ebbed away into a dull pound at the back of her head. She grunted in discomfort as her muscles protested, unhappy at being to tense and taut for so long. She slowly rolled onto her back, closing her wet eyes tightly as she slung her arm over them, letting the darkness calm her as she tried to regain her bearings.

"Shit." She muttered, her chest heaving mightily as her breaths came out in heavy puffs. When her breathing soon slowed, Laurien removed her arm from her eyes, cursing again under her breath when she noticed the telltale blotches of mascara on her skin before letting her arm flop to her side.

She slowly got to her knees and crawled over to the bathroom, not bothering to turn on the harsh lights as she summoned her medication bottle over to her as she stretched out on the tile. She struggled with the cap for longer than she'd like to admit, before she was finally able to pop two tablets in her mouth and gulped them down as if she had just found water in the middle of the barren desert.

Laurien sighed deeply after she felt them take effect in a couple of minutes, feeling well enough to finally get to her feet and wash her face at the sink, wiping away the smudged raccoon mascara on her face and arms well enough to look at least presentable before she rolled down her black sleeves over the patchwork skin.

She found herself staring at her reflection in the mirror, grimacing slightly as her eyes immediately jumped to the thick scar that stretched from the edge of her left eyebrow and across her temple before disappearing into her hair that had been pulled back into a high ponytail, her light bangs hardly hiding any centimeter of the scar. Laurien resisted the temptation to grab onto some makeup foundation to cover up the horrid line, only allowing herself to let out a deep breath of irritation as her grey eyes flitted down, looking for something to distract her from looking at it for too long.

Her gaze soon fell upon a small red movement near her foot, where a small mouse was curiously inspecting her sock. Not wanting to startle the tiny ginger-furred creature, she stayed still, only moving when the mouse finally lost interest and scurried away behind the toilet, most likely escaping through a hole in the wall that she'd neglected to block.

A sudden, but unfortunately familiar pang of sadness hit her heart, as the mouse's red fur reminded Laurien of Shasta. Quickly shoving the unwanted memory away as her scar sparked painfully, Laurien dragged her feet over to the kitchen, carefully stepping around the cutlery, before she stared for an uncomfortable amount of time at the items in the pantry before eventually closing it, completely uninspired.

The clock on the kitchen wall read five-thirty seven, but she wasn't the least bit hungry, despite the fact that she hadn't eaten at all that day, though she finally settled for an unappetizing looking apple to gnaw wistfully on to quiet the logical side of her conscience as she stared out the window at the long field before her house.

It was strange how even though she'd lived on the property for a little under three years, she still felt like a complete stranger, it didn't matter how many times she drove to the beautiful city of Ottawa, it was still foreign to her. Maybe it was just her, but the woods near the house seemed cold and forbidden, the neighbors more acquaintances than friends, and the very floor she stood on felt hard and echoed eerily when she walked upon it. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself, the sun setting in the distance rather off putting, as it reminded her that it wouldn't be long before the nightmares would be upon her.

Laurien took another bite of her apple before placing it on the counter and flicking her wrist at the radio across the room, moving the dial just enough that a soft croon erupted from the speaker, letting her know that she'd just caught the tail end of The Beatles' 'Let It Be'.

A small smile appeared on her face. Sean had been obsessed with the Beatles after they first released 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' in the US, always playing their records day and night, to the point where Laurien had them memorized by heart. She sighed to herself, knowing that Sean would be absolutely crushed if he knew that they'd broken up a few years ago, if he was even still alive.

Laurien felt a jolt, the familiar beginning twangs of a guitar were emitted from across the room as the next song started, startling her into turning around fast enough to see the radio being flattened in a spray of electrical sparks as the music ceased abruptly. She stared in shock at what was left of the radio, before her eyes slowly drifted down to her hands, both of which were shaking minutely.

Quickly shoving them in her high-waisted pockets, she made to move toward the radio to clean up her mess, when a knock on the door made her freeze in her path. She glanced at the front door, frowning as she noticed a shadow being cast upon the curtains in front of the adjacent window. Summoning the frying pan out from one of the kitchen drawers and into her hand, Laurien crept toward the door, her still shaking hand reaching out to clasp the cold doorknob as she peered through the peephole. She sighed and put down the frying pan safely on the floor before opening the door to reveal her neighbor who lived on the next acre over, Jane, who held up a tray of lasagna in a greeting.

Laurien smiled and rested her head against the doorframe. "How did you know?"

Jane smirked back at her, her short dark hair getting blown about in the chilly wind. "Call it a hunch."

Laurien opened up the door wider as Jane handed her the lasagna. "Would you like to come in?"

"No, it's all right, I've got to get back to the kids, they've been getting a little bit fussy with John being gone for so long."

Laurien nodded, knowing that Jane's husband was overseas helping out with the war effort in Vietnam, even though Canada was officially non-belligerent. "Do you know when he's coming back?"

Jane's smile grew wider, her small frame almost vibrating in excitement. "There are peace talks scheduled next week in Paris, which I hope means that he'll be back soon."

"That's good to hear." Laurien said, and it was, considering how long the war in Vietnam had been going.

She could still recall the day that they had all sat by the television as they called out the draft lottery numbers four years ago. Alex had sat next to her, eyes glued to the ground as the announcer said his number, and the numbers of many of the other students and teachers. Her heart had plummeted into her stomach as Alex's shoulders sagged underneath the immense weight that had been placed on him all of a sudden. God, she hoped that he was all right, he hadn't replied to any letters in the past two months.

"You feeling better today?" Jane asked harmlessly, bringing Laurien back from her reverie.

She nodded as convincingly as she could, trying not to wince as she moved her head. "Yeah, I'm really hoping to get back to work soon, if they haven't already given away my position to someone else."

"Aw, well, I'm sure they haven't. Jane reassured her sympathetically before leaning in and lowering her voice. "But don't be afraid to draw it out if you can."

Laurien shook her head, smirking. "Nah, I just want to get back to normal. Maybe they'll give me some shorter hours to ease myself back into it."

"They will, don't you worry." Jane said, making to move down the steps to the house. "Well, I'll leave you be, but if you need anything, don't be afraid to call or come over, all right Catlijn?"

Laurien forced another small smile, still not quite used to her new name, even after three years, but she found that recently it was growing on her. Catlijn De Jaager was a thirty-two year old nurse, no mother or father, only child, and had a great dislike for guns ever since a patient shot her after getting a hold of an officer's gun in 1969, and was now on medical leave since then, or that's at least what it said in her file. It wasn't far from the truth, but living even a slight version of a lie still bothered her from time to time, even though it was a necessity, seeing as the risk of keeping her own name was far too high after she left the United States.

"All right, thanks again." Laurien said, giving Jane a small wave as she watched her make her way back across the field to her own house, wondering how that little woman could manage three kids on her own.

Laurien closed the door and immediately put the lasagna in the fridge, resolving to clean up the scattered cutlery on the floor until there was another knock on the door. Frowning, she walked back over to the front, thinking that maybe Jane had forgotten something, and put her hand on the doorknob, only to receive an extreme electric shock that sent her stumbling backwards as the door was slammed open.

Before Laurien could react, small tendrils were sent flying at her, piercing her chest with thin needles as an excruciating current suddenly shot through her bones. She collapsed on her back, her entire body rigid and trembling as she noticed a group of men enter her house, all heavily armed and wearing military grade protective gear.

With her nails digging painfully into the palms of her hands, Laurien saw a man approach her with a familiar looking gun with a dart sticking out the end. He shot, but the dart paused in mid-air before turning back on its owner and burying itself in his neck. With the initial shock gone, Laurien ripped the electrified needles from her skin and spun around, knocking the legs out from under one of the men, before sending the taser at another, not allowing herself the satisfaction to watch them hit the ground before she latched onto the frying pan by the door with her powers and clocked a shorter man in the head with it as it flew to her hand.

With four more left, she dove beneath the nearby coffee table, evading more darts, before grabbing onto their vests and launching them back into the far side of her house, one of the men actually going through a wall before collapsing into a heap.

Huh, she thought, it was actually a lot easier this time.

Breathing heavily, and still feeling the after effects of the taser, Laurien summoned all of the men's walkie talkies and crushed them together into a crumbling boulder of plastic and batteries before snapping their guns in half.

Going into overdrive, she ran to her bedroom and grabbed two bags from the closet, simultaneously filling them both up with all of her necessary things, her clothes, her wallet and passport, the books, and the photographs, before latching the bags to her back. She sprinted back through the house, grabbing all the last miscellaneous items that would show that she'd been there, before heading for the door, looking carefully out the peephole before opening the door a smidge as the electric buzz and grunts of the man being tasered echoed in her ears.

Laurien spotted a large military car parked next to her small blue truck, two men putting what looked to be a boot on one of the wheels. Letting out a small huff of irritation, she pushed back the men into the military car with her powers from a distance before dashing outside, removing the unfinished boot with a quick twist of her fingers.

As she got into the driver's seat of the truck after throwing her bags in the back and setting her brown suede jacket down on the seat next to her, Laurien became aware of the icy cold fluid that seemed to be pulsating through her veins, sending a tingling sensation through her entire body, but she simply dismissed it, seeing as this was the most she'd used her mutation in a long time.

Shifting the truck into gear, she made sure not to run over any prone bodies as she drove around the military car, speeding toward the dirt road that led to the city. Laurien's heart was beating so fast, she thought that it might burst, but as the truck went through the forest, the adrenaline started to wear off and what Laurien could only describe as extreme panic began to set in.

How the hell had they found her? She wondered frantically, though she then supposed that she was lucky to have made it this long without an incident, seeing as others couldn't say the same.

She continued down the road, with her mind working restlessly as her hands gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, her palms still throbbing from her nails digging into them. Where was she going to go? The city was an option, though it seemed to be an only temporary one. They would be searching high and low for her, but she needed time to create a new identity, and Bellamy wasn't around anymore for that. She needed to face the facts that she was utterly alone and stuck.

Laurien hadn't realized how fast she was going, considering that when another car appeared in her path at the crossroads, she swerved sharply, fortunately screeching to a stop before she could plow into a tree on the side of the road. She let out a rattling breath as she carefully pried her hands from off the steering wheel, opening the door to the truck, hoping to sort things out quickly and get on her way, but when Laurien stepped out of her truck, and looked over at the passengers getting out of the car, she stopped dead in her tracks when she immediately recognized them, or at least the majority of them.

A bedraggled looking long-haired Charles stepped out of the passenger side, something that wasn't a surprise to her, whilst a tall man with a questionable hairstyle and a brown leather jacket came out of the driver's seat and tried to talk to her, but she couldn't hear him.

Behind them, sat Hank in his human form, which she'd known about before she'd left, but then her eyes fell upon the woman in the back seat along with Hank.

Laurien almost forgot to breathe when she realized that it was the mismatched eyed woman from the picture.

"Sera." Laurien whispered breathlessly.

 **Dun Dun Dun, she's finally here. Sorry for keeping you guys hanging, but she needed to come at a specific time, and it took me a while to realize it. So** there **are some new things that we have learned about, what happened during those ten missing years? We'll find out soon... (hopefully!) Also, what was the song that set Laurien off? Who knows, but maybe you guys can guess with the coming chapters? Hint: It** is **from the year 1964. Anyways, I might just be being really vague, so I don't know. I left another hint somewhere in the text. I always wanted to have Laurien live in** a house **in Canada, just for a little while. Hope you guys all enjoyed, thank you to everyone, and please leave a review!**


	29. Chapter 29

**Hey guys! Here's chapter 29! Enjoy!**

Laurien stared widely at the group getting out of the car before her, her breath catching in her throat as her eyes were glued on the auburn haired woman in the back seat with Hank. Someone called her name, and she dragged her gaze away from the woman before they rested on who had spoken, Charles.

His usually light and fluffy hair was now weighed down by his shoulders in thick heavy strands, accompanied by a scruffy beard on his tired face. There were red rings around his eyes as they fluttered about sporadically as if they were about to jump out of the sockets.

Her stomach plummeted when she noticed the gold band on his right hand, just where she'd left it all those years ago. Her own right hand flexed unconsciously, void of anything besides old scars, though the slight indentation was still visible on her fourth finger.

Charles' gaze flitted down to where she was staring and then to her, his face falling when he saw her bare hand. Laurien took a small step back, because even at this distance, his emotions slammed into her like a brick wall. She ended up backing into the side of her truck, jarring her back into reality as she suddenly heard what the strange leather clad man, who had been gradually stepping towards her, was saying.

"Are you all right?" The man asked, his voice low and rough as his hand extended out kindly to her. Strangely, her eyes immediately noticed the small yellowish tobacco stains on his fingers and she suddenly found herself longing for a cigarette of her own.

Laurien frowned confusedly at him, initially wary of the man, though from his calm and collected demeanor, she found herself trusting him more than she trusted herself at that very moment. She shook her head and waved off his helping hand as she made to get back into the truck, wanting to get as far away as possible from the situation that was stealing the breath from her lungs.

The man's firm, yet gentle hand on her arm stopped her, his emotions not meaning any harm, but under the circumstances, the physical contact was enough to set her off. Laurien pushed him back with her powers, sending him flying back until he landed on the roof of his car with a loud metallic clang as the roof caved underneath his weight. She grabbed onto the door quickly and as it shut, the side view mirror showed her that Charles was running toward her.

After turning the keys and shifting into gear, Laurien floored the gas pedal, hearing the sharp screech of the tires on the pavement as the truck began to move away from the reminders of the memories that she'd much rather forget.

She glanced in the rearview mirror, frowning when she only saw one head in the backseat of the other's car, before the truck suddenly came to a crashing halt. Laurien's head snapped forward with the momentum and hit the steering wheel hard, sending a pang of agony roaring through her forehead like a tsunami wave.

Groaning, she lifted her head and saw that the front of her truck had charcoal colored smoke seeping out from the underneath the completely crushed hood. Her head was pounding heavily as she squinted in confusion at the wreck, wondering how it had come about, seeing as she was still in the middle of the road, until her door was wrenched open and she was unceremoniously yanked out of the truck.

Laurien yelped in pain as her body hit the ground at the wrong angle, clasping at the hand that was holding the collar of her shirt as it dragged her back toward the other car. She glanced up, only to stare in disbelief as she saw the mysterious woman, Sera, pulling her along as if she weighed nothing.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Charles' angry, yet panicked voice met her ears as his arms suddenly wrapped around her middle, removing her from Sera's grip. Laurien opened her mouth to respond, thinking that the question was to her, though she was startled when Sera answered harshly.

"I got the job done, what more do you want?" She said, her smooth voice ringing eerily in Laurien's head as her vision faded in and out of focus. "I'm here for her now, I wasn't going to wait for you to string together some charming lie just for her to refuse to come with us anyway."

Charles growled, but didn't say anything in response as he tried to keep a hold on a struggling Laurien. "Let go of me." She mumbled irritably, her nails digging into his arms as she grabbed onto one of Sera's antique bracelets with her powers and bounced it off of Charles' forehead with a small ping that made the other woman laugh.

"Well, look at that." Sera chuckled, looking somewhat fondly at Laurien. "She does take after me."

Laurien stilled abruptly as her addled mind slowly registered her words, but before she could ask what she meant, a sharp pinching sensation pricked at her neck and she fell into a dark abyss.

* * *

When she came to, the first thing she immediately noticed was how mightily her brain was pounding against the walls of her skull. Laurien winced, though she was thankful that it wasn't anywhere near as painful as she was used to. The pounding wasn't at all helped by the fact that a loud droning roar that was so unnervingly familiar to her ears surrounded her; she hoped that it was just a dream.

Reluctantly, her eyes fluttered open and she took in her blurry surroundings, unfortunately confirming what she'd feared. She was on another bloody plane.

Laurien took a deep breath, groaning as she tried to turn over in her slightly reclined seat, only to feel an unexpected bite of cold metal against her wrists as she was stopped. Frowning, she glanced down at her hands, seeing that they were bound together by a pair of handcuffs, the chain of which was looped around the armrest of the chair. She raised an unimpressed eyebrow and made to release herself with her powers, but nothing happened. A small spark of fear blossomed in Laurien's chest as she tried again, only for it to grow exponentially when she noticed that she couldn't feel the presence of the mutation in her veins, no icy pulsations, no fire, nothing. Thoroughly horrified and frightened, Laurien yanked fruitlessly at the handcuffs, ignoring the sharp pain as the edges dug shallowly into her skin, until shockingly warm hands suddenly grabbed her wrists, preventing her from doing any more damage.

"Please don't, darling."

Laurien looked up quickly, her pale brown eyes burning into Charles' own watery pair as he looked down at her in infuriating concern.

"What have you done to me?" She murmured slowly, her head still hurting way too much to be fully angry right at that moment, but she was sure that it would come around later and after waking up like this, she was very much looking forward to it.

"It's just the serum that Hank and I use, you've felt it before when-"

"Yes, I know." She said bitterly, lowering her gaze to his hands as the ring on his finger caught the light.

Charles crouched down in front of her, resting what was apparently meant to be a calming hand on her knee. "I'm sorry, but it's just a precaution, we thought that you might be a little bit too…" He faded off, in search of an appropriate word.

"What? Feral? Emotional? Sporadic?" She suggested in rapid fire, ripping her hands out of his grip. "Take your pick, they'll all be true, but that still doesn't give you the right to put that stuff in me again after what happened."

"Darling-"

"No, you don't get to call me that anymore." She snapped sharply, fuming thunderously underneath her steadily failing guise of calmness. "You lost that privilege a long time ago."

"Laurien." He tried softly, his voice brimming with emotion that she couldn't decipher as he lifted a hand to her cup her face. She flinched away from him, causing his hand to freeze abruptly before he then slipped it into his pocket and got to his feet.

"Why am I here?" She asked, looking down at her shoes, as she wanted nothing more than to be anywhere else but in that airplane at that moment. When she didn't get an answer, she tried a different tactic. "Where are we going?"

"Arlington County, Virginia." Hank's voice called from where Laurien believed to be the cockpit of the plane, his response prompting her to look over at Charles questioningly.

"We have received an urgent call." He said slowly, as if he were choosing his words extremely carefully, his gaze flicking over to where the leather clad man sat in the seat across from her. "From the future."

She opened her mouth, but quickly closed it, mulling what he had just said over in her mind as she forced her anger down in a desperate attempt to understand. What the hell was he on? She'd only been gone a few years and now he was talking nonsense.

"Pardon?" She tried, wincing at how stilted it sounded, but it was at least better than saying 'What the bloody fuck?' in front of a complete stranger.

Charles sighed, resting one of his hands on his hip as he rubbed his temple. "This is going to sound completely mad."

"Try me."

He moved over to another chair before flopping unceremoniously into it, shaking his head slowly. "Logan came to the mansion yesterday afternoon with some wild story of him being from the future."

"Mr. Bodyguard Logan?" She asked, raising her eyebrows as she pointed at the disgruntled man the best she could with her captive hands.

Logan let out a small puff of smoke from his mouth in response as he tapped his cigar against the nearby ashtray, leaving Laurien to only scowl back at him before she turned back to Charles, her anger strengthening as she saw his unwaveringly serious expression.

"This is what you've kidnapped me for? You sure there's only tobacco in that cigar, because that sounds like some drug-addled storyline straight out of one of Hank's Star Trek programs."

She heard a small cry of indignation arise from the cockpit, but she ultimately ignored it as Charles sighed again.

"It's true, Laurien." Charles insisted exasperatedly, before giving Logan a quick side-glance. "At least I think it is."

"Well, what if, hypothetically, we believed him, why does the future need your help in the first place?"

"Our help, actually." Charles corrected her as he brushed a strand of matted hair away from his face. "It's going to take all of us to change the course of events that leads to a world where the worst of mankind is in charge."

"You sure we're not living in it now?" She wondered aloud, her mind drifting bitterly to the bloated image of Nixon that she'd seen in the paper a few days ago. He was an utterly shady character and Laurien couldn't condone the way that he'd backed the Vietnam War, especially after the My Lai massacre that had taken place in 1968. He'd been one of the reason why she'd traded in the US for Canada, seeing as Trudeau was a much more agreeable man.

"Believe me." Logan finally spoke up, not taking his eyes off of the fat cigar between his fingers. "It gets a lot worse."

Laurien glanced at him, searching his tanned face carefully, though wishing that she had Charles' mutation to see if he was telling the truth, but by the odd look in his hazel eyes when they lifted to meet hers, she found that she didn't need to.

"If this even is true, what could we possibly do to change anything?" She said skeptically, turning back to Charles.

"The only way that we can stop this from occurring is if we stop Raven from assassinating a man by the name of Bolivar Trask."

Laurien frowned, the name unfamiliar to her. "Do we know where and when it will take place?"

"Paris, in four days, at the Peace Accords."

"Shit." She cursed quietly under her breath, knowing that the whole world would be watching as a decision was made between the two warring countries. "Then what are we doing flying to Virginia?"

Charles' mouth twisted into a scowl. "In order to stop Raven, we have to pick up one more person."

Laurien's insides squirmed uncomfortably as she immediately put two and two together. "Oh, Charles, please don't be thinking of doing what I think you're going to do. Don't you remember what happened last time?"

"Yes, I do, Laurien." He snapped suddenly, his voice growing louder to the point that it would have frightened her if they were under different circumstances. "And I don't like it any more than you do."

"Probably less, I'd imagine." Laurien sympathized, before furrowing her brow, a torrent of question without answers throwing themselves at her mind in a barrage akin to gunfire. "But why am I here, surely you could do all of this without me?"

"Don't sell yourself short, kid. They asked for you specifically." Logan murmured from his seat, his voice low and rough in reassurance. "The future Charles and Erik."

She raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "And future me wasn't there to say hell no?"

A strange expression flashed across Logan's face the moment she spoke, but she didn't get the chance to ask why, as a pang of pain pierced through her head. Laurien grunted; squeezing her eyes shut as she leaned her head back against the headrest.

"Laurien?" Charles' worried voice asked as she felt his warm hand on her arm.

She waved him off, not bothering to open her eyes until it eventually passed. "Sorry, it's just…"

"You're still having them, aren't you?" He asked gently.

She nodded silently, moving her head to look out the window as she tried to discretely wipe away the tears that had suddenly filled her eyes on her shoulder.

"May I say something?" A smooth voice rang out from the back of the airplane, startling Laurien, as the auburn haired woman wandered over to her seat, crossing one leg over the other as she poured herself a glass of scotch from a glass bottle. "That is, if Charlie will allow me to."

"Sera, this is really not the best time." Charles bristled minutely the moment the nickname met his ears as they both eyed the newcomer, Laurien completely forgetting that she had been accompanying them.

"So you do actually know her?" Laurien accused, her anger returning in full force. "That's great to know ten whole years after I asked you if you did."

"It's not like that." He urged, rounding on her. "I had a good reason not to tell you."

"And what is that exactly?" Sera demanded, but when Charles didn't respond, she gestured toward Laurien. "May I?"

"I'd rather you didn't."

"What?" The redhead threw up her arms. "You want to play mediator or something?"

"Yeah, Charles, you've already got me tied up here, I think that you've done enough for today." Laurien added as she jingled the handcuff chain against the armrest.

Charles scowled, his chin twitching beneath his beard, but he soon disappeared into the cockpit with Hank.

"You going to skedaddle as well?" Sera asked Logan as he puffed another drag from his cigar.

"Nope." He stated simply, goading a small kick to the thigh from the other woman as she grinned at him, reminding Laurien of how Bastijn and Roosje used to tease one another.

"So, Laurien, we meet at last." Sera drawled from behind her now empty glass. "I haven't seen you since you were in your mother's belly. I wish we could've met under better circumstances."

"Yeah, me too."

Sera winced comically, rubbing her hands together as if she were an athlete preparing for a track and field event. "This is going to be difficult to explain."

"That you're somehow related to me?" Laurien wondered aloud. "I surmised as much, can't really go around looking like each other that much without putting two and two together. So who are you?"

The other woman shrugged. "Sera Carlijn. I'm Griet's sister, so I'm technically your aunt."

Laurien shook her head. "No."

Sera frowned. "No?"

"No, you look even younger than me, so that's not even possible. Besides my mother never mentioned any siblings."

"Yeah, well." Sera mumbled, scratching the back of her head uncomfortably. "We had a little bit of a falling out after the thirties, so I'm not really surprised."

"Neither am I." Logan added, ignoring the dirty glance that he received from Sera.

"Hey, I'm allowed to say it, not you." She snarled. "I'll rip your fucking head off and throw it out the plane window, let's see if you can regenerate after that."

"Why did you have a falling out?" Laurien wondered, sitting up straight in her seat.

"It's a very long story, I don't want to bore you with that."

Laurien's shoulders fell in disappointment. "How did you meet Charles then?"

Sera chuckled. "That's an even longer story."

"Are you going to tell me anything?" Laurien demanded, her scalp prickling in irritation.

"Maybe, but I'm like a magic eight ball, you've got to shake me a little bit to get the good answers."

Laurien sighed. "Do you have a mutation? Is that why you're so…?"

"No, I'm just a really hot looking fifty year old." Sera stated, her tone so serious that Laurien was on the verge of believing her when the other woman finally cracked, her beautiful face breaking out into a wry smile. "Nah, just joking." She chuckled before turning serious. "Besides who did you think you got yours from? Not your mother, Christ, she had a hard enough time with mine, let alone the prospect of her having her own. She wouldn't have been able to survive if she was like me, she wanted to be like everyone else too much."

The way Sera's sour tone laced her words sent a tense contraction through Laurien's forearm muscles, her wrists flexing against the cold handcuffs as a burning sensation flared within her. If her mother had issues with Sera's mutation, what had she thought about her daughter having one of her own? Laurien didn't want to think about the answer to her own question, and thankfully she didn't have to, as Sera continued on her spiel.

"Like my pal, Logan, here, I have enhanced strength, but not the claws, thank God. Could you imagine? It's like eternally running with scissors." She laughed softly, before her eyes caught something on Laurien's face. "Oh, by the way, I'm sorry about your truck and your head, that was my doing, unfortunately." She added, as if it were an afterthought. "Anyways, the eye thing was more of an accessory than a mutation, no matter what Charles says. Yours on the other hand, makes me wonder what it would've been like if I had children, how the mutation might have stepped up if it were directly from me. It's dangerous, though, with powers like yours, I'm surprised the government hasn't gotten their hands on you yet."

"Believe me, they've tried." Laurien muttered bitterly.

"I can see that." Sera stated, staring with narrowed eyes at Laurien until she leaned forward. "Here." She said, reaching over and snapping the chain of the handcuffs effortlessly in her fist. "You must be almost bursting, bathroom's over there."

Laurien moved her hands slowly away from the armrest, wincing as her arm muscles groaned from being in the same place for a long period of time, before nodding to Sera in thanks. She got to her feet and strode over to the bathroom, resting her forehead against the door as she closed it behind her. She breathed deeply, trying to focus on keeping her inhales and exhales as steady as possible as she gathered her thoughts in her muddled brain.

"Holy shit." She whispered, pressing a hand to her mouth in disbelief as she feared that it was all just a dream, that she would just suddenly wake up in her own bed back in Ottawa and pass another morning with the covers over her head as she waited for her stomach to get hungry enough to inspire her to get up.

Laurien honestly couldn't believe it that she still had a living family member, granted she hadn't even known that they were officially related until a couple of minutes ago, but it felt completely bizarrely wonderful in her constricting chest. Her hand hid the small tired smile that had been spreading uncontrollably on her mouth as she glanced at her reflection in the mirror, ignoring the large purple bruise on her forehead as she let her hand fall and shyly admired how the smile lit up her entire face.

Out of nowhere, another painful pulsation sparked in her head, bringing her back abruptly to reality as Laurien gasped and her fingers scrabbled against the bottle that was mercifully still in her pocket. She quickly swallowed two of the pills, before grabbing another one, knowing that she'd need it if she were going to get through the strange situation waiting on the other side of the door, on which a knock sounded.

Laurien quickly gathered herself together, glancing in the mirror to check that she was presentable before opening up the door to reveal the tall and burly bodyguard, Logan.

"You all right, kid?" He asked, his eyes flicking down to where she was placing the bottle of medication back in her pocket.

Laurien took a deep breath, wondering if there would ever be a time when she wasn't ready to collapse just from the sheer exhaustion of dealing with all this shit. "Yeah, I hope so."

His lip quirked comically as he looked at her. "I know that it's a lot to take in."

"Yeah, no shit." She sighed before she glanced up at the solid man, clenching her jaw seriously as her vision flashed a faint shade of green, her powers slowly came back to her. "I hope you know what you're doing, because you might be able to regenerate, but the rest of us can't, and you're opening up a lot of old wounds that might be impossible to stitch up again, you got that?"

He stared at her with his complex hazel eyes, before nodding slowly. Satisfied, Laurien made to walk past him, but she stopped suddenly and tightly gripped the sleeve of his shirt with her fist. "And if you ever call me 'kid' again, I'll kick your fucking ass."

"Duly noted." He mumbled, a hint of a smirk on his face.

Laurien was surprised to find that a smile of her own was tugging at her lips as she released him and went back to her seat, feeling infinitely lighter than she'd felt five minutes previous as she was told that they'd be landing shortly.

 **So there's our introduction to Sera and Logan, I would like to know what your initial impressions of her are like. Do you like her? Hate her? Undecided? The big questions that come out of this chapter is what happened between Charles and Laurien, and where has Sera been all this time? So this one was a difficult one to write, because there's so much to explain and I didn't want you guys drowning in the explanation, so I'm leaving some things for later. Can't wait for Apocalypse, comes out next week! I've been realizing that it's a bit hard for me to write this story when I'm such a big fan of Cherik. Oh well. Hope you all enjoyed, thanks for reading, and please leave a review! (If you do, I'll love you forever!) Thanks!**


	30. Chapter 30

**Hey guys, a bit of a shorter chapter today. Thanks for all the reviews, made me very happy! Here's chapter 30! (wow) Enjoy!**

Footsteps echoed eerily against the Pentagon's marble floors as important military officials made their way around the tour group that stood in front of a series of pictures depicting the battles of the war. An impeccably dressed blonde woman stood before the group, droning on about the month long battle of Iwo Jima as the famous photo of American soldiers raising their country's flag on top of Mount Suribachi.

She found herself staring intently at one of the men through her aviator sunglasses, and couldn't help but wonder where he was now. Was he home with his family, his beautiful wife that made meatloaf for dinner, and small grandchildren that visited after church every Sunday for a barbecue? Or had he drunk himself into an early grave, buried by horrible memories that refused to do anything but cling for dear life to his conflicted head.

She was brought back to reality by a small nudge from Hank as the group proceeded to the next display. She glanced down soon enough to catch him placing his electronic remote back into his fanny pack, the device of which she knew would set off the sprinklers downstairs where Charles, Sera and Logan were now headed.

"You couldn't have worn anything less…?" She muttered, searching for the right word to express her distaste of his fanny pack.

"Convenient? Helpful?" He offered.

"Stupid." She finished simply, rubbing her forehead as the overhead fluorescent lights irritated her eyes, despite the protection of the aviators.

"Are you still taking your medication?" Hank asked, faint lines appearing on his forehead as he furrowed his eyebrows worriedly.

"I wouldn't be alive if I wasn't." Laurien murmured; glancing nervously at a passing officer whose gun was clearly visible in its holster at his side. A shiver ran down her spine as she imagined one of the bullets ripping mercilessly through her scalp like a knife cutting through butter.

She ran a hand through her long wavy hair, her fingers lingering momentarily against the protruding scar before she dropped them to grip her sleeve, her nails digging into the comfortably soft fabric as she tried to busy herself with the matter at hand.

* * *

It had already been a long day. Once they'd touched down in Virginia, Logan had guided them to a house in the suburbs, just outside of the city. They'd only just made it there in one piece, seeing as Charles had insisted on driving the whole way there from the airport tarmac and it had left them all rather tense and green by the time they arrived at the house.

It was quite a beautiful house, the exterior walls were white and layered in stones, and the roof was settled on a slight slant that set it apart from all the other generic houses on the street. Out front, the yard was covered in lush grass and plants of different varieties, and every now and then there would be a tastefully placed stone birdbath or bench that was surrounded by bright yellow flowers that peeked up out of the ground and tickled Laurien's calves as she passed.

She found herself envying the owners, knowing that it took a lot of hard work to keep it looking so nice, something that she hadn't the motivation or discipline to do at her own home in Ottawa, where the grass usually grew to above her waist and weeds were always prospering.

A woman in her early to mid forties answered the door, her pretty face falling into an utterly unimpressed expression at the sight of them. "What's he done now?" She asked blandly. "I'll just write you a cheque for whatever he took."

Hank glanced back in confusion at a frowning Laurien where she stood next to Sera who was picking absentmindedly at her nails as Logan spoke to the woman.

"We just need to talk to him." He stated calmly.

The woman nodded and opened up the door further to let them in as she yelled back into the house. "Peter, the cops are here. Again."

She pointed them in the direction of a staircase that led into a basement suite, the walls of which had posters plastered everywhere, reminding Laurien with a painful jolt of Dan's bedroom back in Belgium.

She swallowed with difficulty before glancing to her left, only to blink rapidly as the memory of Dan was moved to the back of her mind by what she saw before her. She couldn't believe her eyes. What appeared to be a teenager with shockingly silver hair moved from either sides of a ping-pong table in a wispy blur, tapping the ball back and forth between himself and moving at impossible speeds.

"What do you guys want?" He asked hurriedly, his voice varying between being loud and quiet as he moved. "I didn't do anything." He then suddenly appeared on the couch behind them with an almost finished Popsicle in his hand. "I've been here all day."

Logan exchanged a quick look with Charles before turning back to the teen. "Just relax, Pete, we're not the cops."

"Of course you're not cops. If you were cops, you wouldn't be driving a rental car." He said matter-of-factly. "And not only one, how'd you guys all fit in there?"

Sera scoffed loudly as she made her way over to where a tower of sweet packages was stacked. "I told you we should have gotten another car."

Charles grimaced at her, and Laurien was all prepared to hear another bout of their argument that they'd had in the car, but he wisely shut his mouth and addressed Peter instead. "Wait, how'd you know we've got a rental car?"

"I checked your registration when you were walking through the door. I also had some time to kill, so I went through your rental agreement and saw that you're out of town. Are you FBI?" He wondered curiously, talking a mile a minute before disappearing from his place on the couch. "Nope, you're not cops." He stated, startling Laurien into clutching her chest as his voice came from behind her. "Hey, what's with this gifted youngsters place?"

They spun around just to see Peter vanish again, leaving what seemed to be Charles' wallet to fall onto a nearby table. Laurien was about to look away to see where he went, when her eyes caught a glimpse of a photo peaking out of the wallet. "That's an… old card." Charles mumbled as he made to grab it, but before he could, Laurien whisked it away from him with her powers and into her own hands.

She slipped the laminated paper out of one of the leather pocket, revealing a photo of the time they'd gone to the beach during the wintertime with the other students and she'd fallen asleep next to Charles at the end of the day. She was wrapped in a heavy black coat and her tousled hair was peaking out from beneath her old red toque as she snuggled up to Charles as they shared a blanket between the both of them, the thick fabric draped across their legs. Her freckled cheek rested on his chest as he kissed the top of her head and his arms held her close.

She took a rattling breath, remembering that Alice, an old student, had been rather fond of taking photographs when she'd been at the mansion and had probably snapped the shot and given it to Charles before she'd left when the school closed. Feeling suddenly guilty, Laurien slipped the photo back into the wallet before tossing it forcefully back at Charles and sitting down on the couch, all the while avoiding Charles' gaze.

"Why, he's fascinating." Hank gushed; utterly unaware of what had just transpired.

Charles cleared his throat. "He's a pain in the arse." He said, his voice hoarse and stiff.

"Yeah, well, so are you, I don't see any of us complaining." Laurien blurted harshly, wincing as a wave of pain caused her to tense up and squeeze her eyes shut tightly until it passed.

"What, a teleporter?" She heard Hank ask Logan, as she got out her pill bottle, painfully aware that Charles was watching her.

"No, he's just fast." Logan responded quietly. "And when I knew him, he wasn't so… young."

"Young? You're just old." Peter said, appearing right next to her on the couch and scaring the daylights out of her once again. He held out a pink Popsicle to her and after glancing up at him questioningly, she took it gratefully and whispered thanks.

"So you're not afraid to show your powers?" Hank wondered, frowning from behind his thick glasses.

"Powers? What powers? What are you talking about?" Peter spouted out rapidly; warranting a small smile from Laurien as he gently nudged her with his arm. "You see something strange here? Nothing anybody would believe if you told them."

"Can we cut to the chase here?" Sera called from the other side of the room before accidentally ripping open an entire box of Twinkies with her strength, sending packages flying everywhere as she frowned dejectedly after them.

Peter grinned at her before suddenly appearing in the seat in front of the arcade game. "So who are you, and what do you want?"

"We need your help, Peter." Logan stated.

"For what?"

"To break into a highly secured facility and to get someone out."

"Prison break? That's illegal, you know?" Peter wondered, his words subtly unsure, but Laurien could feel his excitement from the other side of the room.

"Well, only if you get caught."

"Which doesn't seem very likely for you." Laurien added as she enjoyed her Popsicle, hoping to appeal to his teenage ego.

"So what's in it for me?"

Charles sighed, as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. "You, you kleptomaniac, get to break into the pentagon."

Peter's excitement spiked unexpectedly, causing Laurien to become rather content in turn. He turned around on his seat, squinting his eyes at them all. "How do I know that I can trust you?"

"'Cause we're just like you." Logan murmured, his hand resting on his hips.

"Show him." Charles told Logan, and the man obliged, lifting his fist to show three sharp bones protruding from his knuckles until they were sticking out a foot from his hand. Laurien stared in awe at the man, never before seeing the claws that Sera had mentioned on the plane.

Peter's expression was very much like her own, before he scrunched up his face. "That's cool, but it's disgusting."

Laurien was vaguely aware of Sera moving about in the corner of her eye, but she flinched when an object was thrown at her and lifted her hand to stop it with her powers. She glanced up and saw that a Twinkie package was floating before her and across the room, Sera was grinning childishly.

"How about that? Is that disgusting?" She asked Peter before looking back at Laurien and saw her unimpressed expression. "What? I thought that he should see something other than Logan's misplaced boner." She then glanced at Logan. "Really, man, you should get that looked at."

Logan responded with a low growl before retracting his claws as Laurien smacked Sera with the Twinkie and got to her feet. "Does he remind you of someone?" She asked Hank quietly once she'd reached him as they all made their way up the stairs.

Hank frowned. "No, I don't think so. Why?"

Laurien shook her head. "Nothing, I guess I'm just imagining it."

* * *

Laurien wondered to herself as she continued following the tour group, only to hear the fire alarm blare in her ears as Hank's controller reached its maximum level of inflicting chaos.

"That's our cue." Hank murmured as the blonde tour guide hurriedly tried to usher them toward the nearest exit.

Laurien made to follow him, but stopped dead in her tracks as the group passed the staircase that Charles, Sera and Logan had descended only a few minutes earlier. Charles had declined her request to go down to the kitchens with them, sidelining her to stay with Hank and wait around as they retrieved Erik. She'd be lying if she said that she wasn't even a little bit annoyed when he'd said no, as if she would hinder their attempt, but the way she saw it, he was the one without his powers, not her. She couldn't help but think that there was something personal in his eyes before he left, that he didn't want her to be there when Erik was released and that made her uneasy.

Looking over her shoulder at Hank's back which was growing smaller and smaller as he left with the group, Laurien made up her mind and started to descend the staircase as fast as she could. It didn't take her too long before she reached the floor that she'd overheard Charles mention and as she headed down a hallway with an unbearably low ceiling that made her feel claustrophobic, she was satisfied to see many of the kitchen staff moving in her general direction.

Knowing that she was close, she hurried along before stopping as she reached a fork in the hallway. Frowning, she glanced down either passageway, utterly lost as to which way she should go, but with the sound of yelling and gunfire from a door to her left, she burst through the doorway, only to see a dozen guards collapse to the white tiled ground along with a large array of kitchen appliances.

Staring in confusion at her surroundings, her eyes finally rested on where Charles, Logan, Sera and Erik stood in front of what appeared to be an elevator as the silver haired Peter sped toward her.

"Did you see that?" He asked excitedly and she nodded, not taking her eyes off of Erik as he finally spotted her.

He stood motionlessly for a moment before starting to stride toward her, slowly at first, before he sped up and took her into his arms. His wet mouth met hers, kissing her deeply as she gripped his soaking white clothes, not sure if she wanted to push him away or pull him in. She wasn't given the choice, because he was suddenly yanked away with Logan's arm wrapped tightly around his throat as Erik clutched at him, choking from the pressure.

"If you hadn't noticed, we're in the middle of getting you out of here, you jackass. Now come on." Logan growled before dragging Erik out into the hallway with Sera following happily behind them, much to Laurien's bemusement. She was breathing heavily, her chest heaving mightily as she raised a hand to her mouth, wondering if it had really been ten years since she'd last tasted him. As a flash of pain hit her, she glanced over to Charles in alarm, who promptly avoided her gaze, but she didn't need to have her powers to know what he was feeling at that moment.

He soon followed after the others, leaving Laurien alone with Peter in the doorway to the kitchen, her head pulsating agonizingly as she ran a hand through her hair.

"You all right?" Peter asked kindly, adjusting the Pentagon security hat on his head as he looked at her with concerned eyes.

"Honestly." Laurien sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I don't know yet."

 **Ah, right in the feels… Speaking of feels, did anyone watch the most recent episode of Game Of Thrones? That shit destroyed me. Anyways, not much else is new, but I'm absolutely in love with this song by the Lumineers, called My Eyes. I play it on repeat. Also a song by Zaz, called Eblouie Par La Nuit, I love it. Anywho, thank you very much everyone, hope you all enjoyed, and please review!**


	31. Chapter 31

**Hey! Sorry, this took so long. A lot has happened over the last month, including exams, so it has been rather difficult to set aside time to write. Here's Chapter 31! Enjoy!**

The car ride back to the plane was awkward to say the least. After Hank had pulled up with the car at a back entrance of the Pentagon, Logan stuffed Erik unceremoniously into the trunk before shutting the lid forcefully, ignoring the subtle shakes of the metal surrounding them as they piled in.

"I'll meet you there." Peter said through Hank's slightly open window, almost not giving himself enough time to finish his sentence before zooming away.

Laurien grimaced as she settled herself in the passenger seat, her head still feeling like it was about to split open. She pinched the bridge of her nose, the heavy scent in the car becoming nauseatingly pungent.

"Logan, would you be so kind as to put that out, please?" Charles suddenly asked, from the back, startling Laurien into reflexively kicking the car door and emitting a loud thud throughout for the rest of them to hear.

"Uh, sorry, is the smell bothering you?" Logan murmured awkwardly.

"No, well maybe, it's just that I used to smoke and it's still quite difficult to stay off it nowadays." Charles explained, as Laurien kept her eyes glued on the road, watching for the other cars speeding past as Hank turned onto the freeway.

"Ah." Logan nodded in understanding and quickly put out his smoking cigar "No problem."

"Thank you." Charles said, obviously trying to keep his voice light, but ultimately failing as it cracked noticeably.

She didn't know why, but she felt a swirl of guilt being deeply rooted in her stomach as she tried to avoid looking in the rearview mirror at him. She tried to shake off the sensation, but found that it didn't vanish until she got distracted as they passed a peculiar looking billboard. It was painted bright blue with the white outline of a T, and underneath read two words, Trask Industries.

"Is that the same Trask that Raven…?" She started to ask before trailing off.

"The one and only." Hank stated, looking over at her from his seat behind the wheel. "He's a big corporate business man, specializes in advancing human progress."

"What does she want with him?"

"Well, as Hank said, he's interested in advancing human progress, just not mutant progress as well." Charles murmured from the back, his heavy glasses hiding his eyes from view. "We've recently found evidence that highly suggests that it was his men who raided the mansion a few years back.

A jolt of fear sparked through Laurien's stomach as she clutched it tightly, fingernails digging shallowly into the soft flesh. She struggled to keep her breathing under control as she saw the result of their actions in the mansion before her eyes once again, something that she'd worked so hard to suppress.

They continued on in silence for another ten minutes before a loud thumping from the back made them all jump.

"What the hell was that?" Logan growled, straining his neck around to see through the window behind them.

"Erik." Charles muttered, and Laurien was shocked by how much hurt seemed to be radiating off of the man as he uttered the metal bender's name.

The loud thumps occurred form the trunk again, though this time almost rhythmically.

"He's wondering where we're going?" Sera piped up abruptly from her spot squished between Charles and Logan in the middle seat, absentmindedly winding a thoroughly worn shoelace through her long spindly fingers.

Charles frowned. "How do you know that?"

"They taught us Morse code where I was stationed during the war."

"And where was that exactly?" Laurien wondered curiously, looking at her new relative in the rearview mirror.

Sera smirked slyly. "Nowhere of your concern."

Laurien scowled in disappointment and continued glaring out the window through her aviators as Sera tapped back a response.

"What did you tell him?" Charles asked.

"That we're going back to the plane." She mumbled in a derisive tone, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

The rest of the car ride was silent after that, which didn't do anything to ease the tension in the air surrounding them. Laurien almost breathed a sigh of relief when they drove onto the tarmac and she spotted the unmistakable figure of Peter Maximoff sitting on one of the wings of the plane.

She opened the door the moment that Hank pulled to a stop and wrapped her coat snug around herself, the cold January air hitting her like a sledgehammer after being in the suffocating warm car for so long.

Logan made his way around to the trunk and popped the lid, before hauling out a rather flushed looking Erik. Logan didn't give him much time to adjust to his new surroundings before gripping his arm tightly and escorting him directly into the plane, Erik's eyes searching for the others as he was dragged. His gaze met Laurien's for an elongated moment, only for it to be broken as Logan gave him a particularly aggressive push that sent him stumbling into the plane.

Laurien turned her gaze back to where Sera was tying the shoelace around her wrist before giving Peter a small salute as she then made her own way into the plane as well. Laurien made eye contact with the silver haired mutant before he sped over to her and nudged her arm with his elbow.

"You expecting any more trouble from Mr. Prison Break?" He asked, puffing out his chest noticeably as he inhaled.

"Maybe." She murmured distractedly, eyeing the plane one last time before turning to the teen. "You've probably noticed that he's got a bit of a reputation for trouble."

"Well, assassinating the President will definitely get you a lot of news coverage." He said, tilting his head to the side curiously. "You've got some history with him, huh?"

She nodded, feeling her cheeks turn bright red, but he thankfully changed the subject.

"What do you guys need him for anyway?" He inquired.

She frowned, but shook of the uneasy feeling that the question had quickly built in her stomach "Actually, I have still yet to find out myself." Laurien stated truthfully before giving him a small smile. "Thanks for your help, Peter."

"Anytime, gorgeous." He drawled in a mock western accent as he gave her a quick wink before speeding off toward Charles and Hank.

She entered the plane and made to sit down in the seat next to the opening of the cockpit, only to pause when she noticed that Erik was nowhere to be seen. She glanced back at the bathroom, her heart jumping when she saw that a small ray of light was visible beneath the closed door.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Sera suddenly murmured aloud, almost startling Laurien as she intruded on her thoughts.

She shot a look over at her, as the redhead reclined lazily in her chair, cracking her knuckles loudly. "What?" Laurien asked, frowning in confusion.

"Don't play coy, it doesn't look good on you." Sera stated rapidly, clenching her jaw as one of her fingers bent at a painful looking angle. "You want to go talk to him, don't you?"

Laurien blinked. "Well, sure, why not?"

Sera shook her head. "Stay away from men like that. In the end, you either end up broken hearted or with a bullet in your head, there's no other way around it."

"How would you know?"

"I've been around a long time, girl, long enough to see a few people with lead permanently embedded in their skulls, and it ain't something you forget easily."

Laurien frowned. "Why are you telling me this?"

Sera cocked her head to the side, her tone mocking. "Because I care, is that so hard to comprehend?"

Laurien huffed a small bitter laugh as she got to her feet. "A bit. Where was that sweet caring sentiment fifteen years ago, huh?"

For the first time since they'd met, Sera looked the least bit surprised, but she didn't say anything.

"Well?" Laurien prodded.

The redhead ceased bending her fingers and settled them in her lap before meeting Laurien's gaze. "I was busy." She claimed simply.

Laurien felt as if someone had just slapped her hard in the face. Her hands slowly curled into fists at her sides. "How about you come back later when you have a proper excuse."

Sera's mismatched eyes flashed fiercely and she leaned forward in her seat, as if she were prepared to pounce at any moment. "Look, I'm here now."

"Not good enough." Laurien muttered, ignoring Sera's glare as she headed toward the washroom.

"I was the one they called after Dan's accident." Sera said abruptly.

Laurien stopped dead in her tracks and spun around to face the other woman, her blood running cold at the mention of his name. "The accident? Is that what you call him murdering my siblings?"

"I remember seeing you in the hospital, your entire torso covered in bandages, from your waist to your shoulders. You had quite the shiner as well." She stated, brushing her finger against her own cheekbone. "You were in a mighty awful state."

"Why didn't I see you?" She asked quietly, her voice barely coming out above a whisper as her breaths escaped in small faint bursts.

"Well, I didn't really stay for all that long." She explained. "I had to go find Danny Boy."

"Sera leave her alone." Logan's gruff voice chastised from his seat.

The two women ignored him. "Why didn't you stay?" Laurien asked, suddenly feeling lightheaded.

"I told you I had to find Dan, I'd known the kid ever since he was born and you'd just buried a knife in his eye. Honestly, I was this close to killing you myself."

"Then why didn't you? You could have saved me a lot of fucking time."

"You don't mean that." Logan urged.

"What the fuck do you know? I've only known you for what, not even two days and you think you know how I feel?" She unloaded on him, a crimson tinge staining her vision. "You fucking dragged us all back into this mess and-"

"Hey, you don't get to rip on Logan, that's my job." Sera barked, her mismatched eyes flashing. "And I had good reason to go after Dan instead of you."

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"Well, I'd never even met you, why would I stick around?" She said coldly.

"What the fuck?" Laurien exclaimed, advancing dangerously toward the redhead, though only to be stopped abruptly by Charles' hand wrapping tightly around her upper arm. She hadn't noticed him enter the airplane with Hank, who stood nervously behind him before scrambling passed them and disappearing into the cockpit.

"Sera, stop it." Charles ordered, raising a hand towards her in warning.

"What do you mean stop it?" Sera demanded, her lips curling into a snarl. "I'm just telling her what she needs to know, which begs the question, since you knew all along, why didn't you tell her?"

A pang erupted through Laurien's stomach as she faced the man. "Charles?"

The other woman laughed bitterly. "You can't have thought that him happening upon you in New York was an accident, did you?"

"He used Cerebro, that's no secret." Laurien said, shaking her head.

"No, that's what he might have told you, but in reality, I told him all about you." She stated, a deranged smile creeping on her face. "My only living kin. With your powers, or 'mutation', as he calls it, he couldn't resist." She then turned to Charles. "You really couldn't help yourself around a good mutation, could you?"

"Sera please stop." Charles pleaded, his voice panicked and tense.

"He's such a flirt, really. Has he used that mutation line on you yet?"

"Sera, stop this now!" He roared.

"Why don't you make me, Charles?" Sera shouted back at him, before continuing, her voice frighteningly low and quiet, demanding for Laurien's ears to strain to hear her. "That's what you're good at, isn't it? Getting your way every fucking time. Oh, wait. Well, at least it's an even playing field for once."

The faint clicking of the bathroom door opening to reveal a normally clothed Erik then interrupted their argument. He was wearing a simple blue shirt and dark maroon pants, a strange combination, but Laurien had to admit that it looked good on him. "Am I interrupting something?" He wondered aloud innocently.

Sera's mouth twisted into a scowl as she gave them all one last look before shoving past Erik and closing the bathroom door with a bang.

"What the hell is wrong with her?" Erik asked Laurien, but she failed to respond as she returned to her seat.

"She didn't used to be that way." Logan said, shaking his head as he took another puff from his cigar.

Laurien swallowed with immense difficulty before finding her voice. "What happened?"

"I don't know, I lost contact with her after the war." He murmured, his eyes flitting over to where Charles was holding his head in his hands, his straggly hair hiding his face from her view, but his emotions were enough to knock her off her feet if she wasn't already seated.

After they'd taken off, it was an hour before Erik asked from where they'd dragged Logan and Sera, the woman since returning from the bathroom with a slightly glazed look in her eyes. Logan explained, but Laurien found herself tuning out his voice and gradually calming down as she played a song over inside her head. There was a tune that she'd overheard her mother singing one day when she'd been rocking the twins back to sleep, but it had been such a long time ago since she'd last heard it, that in her head, the Dutch lyrics kept melding together with the English of Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You.

The song continued on for another hour before Erik's voice brought her out of her trance. "I believe a congratulations is in order." Erik stated, gesturing toward Charles' hand, causing Laurien's stomach to plummet as she realized that he was pointing at the ring on his finger. "Who's the lucky person?"

Laurien tried to busy herself with looking through the window, and even though Charles didn't say a word, she knew that his eyes must have flitted over to her as Erik's potent emotions suddenly drilled a painful hole in her chest.

There was a long uncomfortable moment of silence before he finally spoke again. "How long were you two together?" He asked calmly.

To her own surprise, she found herself responding, the words spilling out past her lips without further thought. "Long enough for me to get pregnant twice." She stated blandly before letting out a small breath as she realized her mistake the moment it came out of her mouth, and apparently Charles did as well.

"Twice? What do you mean twice? There was only the one in '68, not…" He stated before trailing off, his mouth settling into a frown. "Have you been keeping things from me?"

Laurien finally looked him in the eye, her gaze heated and a deep crimson. "Oh, like you haven't had your own fair share of secrets over the years, Charles?" She accused, crossing her arms over her chest. "At least I kept mine for decent reasons."

"How was mine not the least bit decent?"

"Don't give me that bullshit, you couldn't stand being the only one without powers so you had to drag me along with you."

"What do you mean?" Erik asked; his eyebrows furrowed as he looked between the two of them, but his expression cleared, as he understood. "You didn't do anything to stop the men in the kitchen. How did you lose them?"

"The treatment for my spine affects my DNA."

Erik frowned. "You sacrificed your powers so you could walk?"

"I sacrificed my powers so I could sle-" Charles said, though he trailed off on the last word, squeezing his eyes shut as if uttering it caused him immense pain. A wave of guilt sparked within Laurien's stomach as she tried but didn't succeed in taking her eyes off of him. Charles' emotions were seeping through her skin, conflicting with her own and causing her head to throb painfully. The hurt in his blue eyes stabbed like a knife, but it still wasn't enough to overthrow the deep-set anger that was slowly rising to the surface. "What do you know about it?" Charles finally demanded.

"I've lost my fair share."

Charles shook his head. "Dry your eyes, Erik. It doesn't justify what you've done."

Erik's top lip lifted in a hint of a snarl. "You have no idea what I've done."

"I know you took the things that meant the most to me."

"Well, maybe you should have fought harder for them." Erik suggested firmly, before his eyes flitted toward Laurien. "And besides, haven't you taken something from me?" He said, his jaw clenching. "Someone?"

Erik then fully shifted his gaze to Laurien. "He injected you with that vile stuff, didn't he?" He asked, but she didn't respond, only staring back at him with tired eyes. Her silence inevitably gave him his answer and he looked back at Charles. "Did she even know about it?"

Charles hesitated. "No, but…"

"But what, Charles?" Erik exploded, his usually strong voice wavering ever so slightly. "What is your fucking excuse? You took away her natural defense system without her consent."

"I was trying to protect her." Charles yelled back at him.

"Protect me?" Laurien repeated slowly, her fingers absentmindedly gripping the sleeve of her suede jacket as a claustrophobic sensation threatened to crush her. "You ended up doing the complete opposite. By doing that you prevented me from being able to protect our…" She trailed off, taking a deep breath in an effort to stifle the bubbling shame that twisted her insides.

"Our what?" Charles demanded. "Laurien, what do you mean by 'our'? You can't be saying that…" His expression suddenly changed to one of realization as his red-rimmed eyes widened in horror. "Oh my God."

Laurien found that she couldn't hold his gaze any longer and lowered her eyes, her vision of the surrounding items losing their distinct color as a dull grey infected them.

Erik's low voice cut through the tension between them like a razor. "You couldn't even protect those close to you, it's no wonder you lost Mystique as well."

"Erik." Laurien growled in warning, her head snapping up to face him.

"If you're looking for a fight, Erik, I will give you a fight." Charles uttered stiffly, suddenly rising from his seat and advancing toward Erik.

"Sit down." Logan demanded loudly, but neither Charles nor Erik made any effort to move.

"Let him come." Erik stated, his voice low and calm as Charles charged at him.

Charles grabbed him by the front of his shirt and shook him violently. "You abandoned me!" He screamed. "You took her away, and you abandoned me!"

"Angel. Azazel. Emma. Banshee." Erik recited, seemingly unfazed by the other man's reaction, though his own voice grew louder and more forceful as he continued. "Mutant brothers and sisters, all dead! Countless others experimented on, butchered!"

Suddenly, the plane started to pitch forward drastically. Multiple ear piercing alarms erupted from the cockpit as Hank struggled to control the plane. Laurien gripped the armrests of her chair as she found herself being pinned against the backrest of her seat from the force of the dive. "Erik!" She cried out, but he disregarded her completely.

"Where were you, Charles?" He yelled, staying completely upright despite the tilting plane as Charles stumbled backward into the nearby couch. "We were supposed to protect them! Where were you when your own people needed you?"

"Hiding! You and Hank! Pretending to be something you're not!" Charles started to lose his grip on the couch and Laurien immediately reached out and grabbed him with her powers before he could fall.

"You abandoned us all!" Erik snarled, and a few moments later, the plane gently leveled out and returned to it's normal droning.

Laurien let out a small breath of relief, but when she turned to look over at Charles, who was staring at her with wide pained eyes, her chest constricted and she slowly released him.

The moment his feet were back solidly on the ground, Charles gave Erik one final look before disappearing into the cockpit with Hank. Erik watched him go, his tightly curled fists slowly relaxing as he blinked and finally looked away.

"So you were always an asshole." Logan said, placing his ashtray back on the table in front of him and taking a new cigar out from his pocket.

Erik scowled and turned to face him. "I take it we're best buddies in the future."

Logan cocked his head to the side, shaking it slightly as he flicked his lighter. "I spent a lot of years trying to bring you down, bub."

"How does that work out for you?"

The other man smirked as he took a deep drag from the cigar between his lips. "You're like me. You're a survivor."

"No, Lensherr and Laurien are survivors. You and I just cheated." Sera stated; her voice laced with all varieties of poisonous context as she traced the lines of her veins with her fingers.

"Whatever, doll." Logan replied, taking another puff from his cigar. "Do you wanna pick that shit up?" He asked, gesturing toward Erik and the mess that lay strewn across the floor.

"Yeah, he will." Laurien declared in a dangerously steady tone as she rose from her seat. "We just need to talk in private first."

 **Yup, Sera's an asshole, it's official. Hey, so I have been keeping up with Game Of Thrones, and the last episode was so satisfying, but I had no idea how it was going to go. Saw Finding Dory yesterday, so cute. Saw X Men: Apocalypse as well, the only superhero movie that has made me cry. Erik's scene in the forest... Wow. Seeing the movie was another reason why this chapter took so long is because I couldn't decide which direction I wanted it to go for future installments, but I think I have it settled now.**

 **Anywho, two more exams to go and I'll be free for the summer, so I'll be sure to make a lot of time for writing. Thank you so much for reading this chapter and for being so patient with me. Hope you all enjoyed and please review!**


	32. Chapter 32

**Hi. Exams are done! Please join me in celebrating by reading Chapter 32! Enjoy!**

Erik wasn't allowed much time to react before Laurien strode purposefully over to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. She dragged him over to the bathroom and opened the door with a loud clang before pushing him in.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She demanded the moment that the door had shut of its own accord.

Erik winced as his back hit the wall hard from the momentum of her shoving him into the washroom, his body sinking down to rest on the closed toilet cover. "What's with you all and hurting me? First Charles, then that man, now you."

Laurien couldn't help but frown in confusion, her mind being jarred from the matter at hand. "What did Charles do to you?"

"You see this?" He jutted out his jaw, drawing her attention to a blossoming bruise that was slowly staining his skin. "Charles' work when he first laid eyes on me in the kitchen of the Pentagon."

"You probably deserved that one." Laurien muttered bitterly, not meeting his eyes as she experimentally tapped the wall with her shoe.

"Hurt a lot more considering he's wearing that ring." Erik mentioned, prompting him to receive a dirty glare from Laurien as heat flared in her chest. "Which begs the question, where's yours?"

She smirked bitterly, shaking her head. "Logan's right, you are an asshole."

"I asked a simple question that demands a simple answer." Erik reminded her, pushing her buttons even further. "And yet, you call me names."

"Then you shouldn't ask questions you already know the answers to." She advised, suddenly thinking that it was a mistake to talk to him, but still continued against her better judgment. "Now, tell me, what the hell was with the tantrum you just threw out there?"

"Laurien…" He started, his voice infuriatingly calm, as she knew he was going to try to divert from the subject, but she wouldn't let him.

"No, tell me. Who in their right mind would intentionally cause a plane to plummet from the sky over an argument?"

He paused, as if taking the time to choose his words carefully. "I was defending you."

"That is one sorry excuse. I don't need defending, after all these years, I'm so tired of people screwing things up because they think that they're helping." She growled, her previously repressed temper returning in full force as her eyes flashed bright red. "What I really need right now is for you to shut up and listen for a fucking moment."

He just stared at her, his blue eyes glistening with something that even she couldn't make out. He finally nodded, a flicker of readable remorse and guilt registering on his face.

"You've left it too long." She commented, suddenly self-conscious as to how much her hands were starting to shake.

He frowned. "What?"

"You've put off your talk with Charles for too long. You could have stayed when we got back to the mansion after Belgium, everything would have been so much simpler if you had-"

"Had what? Stayed to play house with you, Charles and Hank?" He demanded, his brow furrowing. "He would have never let me leave, I would have hated being cooped up in that house, and in the end that would have affected our relationship. I didn't want that, Laurien."

"Charles wouldn't have done that to you."

"You full well know that he would have, and he has. What was his reasoning for injecting you with the serum without your explicit consent? How was he not controlling you like he has everything else that he's gotten his hands on?"

Laurien suddenly slammed her fist into his face, causing Erik's head to snap back and collide with the wall. He groaned as blood gushed from his nose and down his face and all that Laurien could do was watch in horror as her hands shook violently before her.

"Is that what you tell yourself to help you sleep at night." She murmured quietly, her voice barely rising above a whisper. "He helped you, he saved you, and in return, you crippled him, physically and emotionally."

"You're defending him, after all he's done to you?" He asked; his eyes narrowing disbelievingly as he brought up a hand to clutch his heavily bleeding nose.

"Oh please, I've defended you so many times for so much worse." She snarled. "But no more, I am so fucking done. You are going to step out those doors and talk to him, you are going to apologize for all the harm that you have done and left unchecked for ten years."

The fight seemed to drain out of Erik with the stream of blood that seeped from his nose and into his mouth as he tried to stem the flow with some of the toilet paper to his right. His shoulders slumped and he ran a weary hand through his hair. "What the hell happened to you, Laurien?"

All air in her chest seemed to exit with a forceful exhale as she gripped the counter of the nearby sink. "What do you mean?"

"You never used to be this… angry."

Laurien felt her jaw clenching tightly, only to loosen it quickly when she found that it solidified his point. She opened her mouth to apologize, but then realized that she didn't owe him one and stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest. "Ten years does a lot to a person."

"I can see that, but what happened?" He asked before glancing at the door. "Who is that woman out there?"

"I don't-" She stammered, as her head began to feel overloaded. "Don't turn this on me."

"What happened?" He repeated, more forcefully this time, but she still didn't respond. "Laurien."

She finally looked directly at him as she took a deep breath, her jaw clenching tightly as her surroundings turned a sickly shade of green. "That is none of your business."

Erik then stood up and made to touch her arm but she snatched up his hand before it could reach her, gripping his wrist tightly with her slender fingers. She realized that it was a mistake to touch him, as she felt the heavily potent emotions transferring through the contact, leaving her unable to decipher which feeling were his and which were her own. She released him, a strange calm coming over her as she let his hand fall to his side, though a moment later, a question suddenly appeared at the forefront of her mind.

"Was it so terrible to even consider a life with us, people who loved and accepted you?" She asked slowly, her brow furrowing in fatigue as the emotionally draining events of the day seemed to be catching up with her. "Was it so unappealing for you to imagine living a life where people weren't trying to kill us in retaliation for some narrow-minded agenda that you had in that head of yours. Did you not want a normal life?"

"Nothing about us is normal, Laurien." He stated, his eyes desperately searching hers. "And for that reason, society won't allow us to live in peace." He then removed the tissue from his nose, revealing a slightly bloodstained upper lip. "Besides, I always thought that you didn't want to settle down."

"Things change."

"Yes, they do." Erik agreed. "I'd be lying if I said that staying hadn't crossed my mind. Our time in Belgium, it felt like something out of a dream. I would wake up with you in my grasp and I- I don't know how to describe it." He murmured quietly, his affectionate blue eyes suddenly turning hard as he shook his head. "It wasn't realistic with the world that we live in. The humans will never accept us."

"They can, and they will with time." She urged. "You must have a little faith in these things."

A subtle smirk crept onto his face. "You know, you're starting to sound just like him."

Laurien faltered, but recovered quickly as she quelled the sudden clinching sensation in her stomach and continued. "All I'm saying is that they're not all bad." She reasoned simply. "You've met Adela and Franz."

"That's different, she grew up with you." Erik pointed out. "The others, they seem to be getting worse and far more numerous as time goes by. You haven't seen first-hand the terrible things that they can do."

"Believe me, I have." She sighed, wincing as she pushed away an intruding memory. "But you are not going to further your cause by alienating them all."

He frowned at her words as waves of striking concern and despondency roared off of him. "Even if there are good ones, whenever I returned from a mission, and saw you sleeping on the bed waiting for me, I lived in constant fear that, one day, I would enter that bedroom and they would have taken you away from me. And I'm still afraid that after all this time we can never regain the feeling of security that they stripped us of until they disappear."

"The absence of humans isn't going to bring back what we once had." She admitted, forcing herself to face the swell of hurt and disappointment that flashed in his eyes. "It's gone."

His gaze fell to the space between them. "He really has taken you from me, hasn't he."

"I was never anyone's to take or possess. You always knew that." She murmured softly, reaching out a gentle hand to squeeze his arm. "Now, you know what you need to do."

He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "It's been ten years."

She shrugged tiredly. "Better late than never."

"What should I do?"

Laurien searched her mind, but didn't have to look far for a solution. "Try a game of chess, after he's cooled off." She suggested, forcing herself to give him a small encouraging smile before turning to reach for the door and grimacing. She felt like a complete asshole and a fool for reacting the way she had, the most frustrating part of it being that she wasn't even sure she was justified in doing what she had to him, the only thing she knew for sure was that she was glad that it was over. "Remind him of old times."

"Did you love him?" Erik suddenly asked, causing Laurien to freeze in her tracks.

She blinked; surprised that he would bring it up now. "For a time, we were engaged for four years before I left, so I suppose love had something to do with it at the time."

"You weren't married?"

She shook her head. "Wasn't really a priority for us, being so busy with the school and all."

Laurien felt a peculiar stirring against her chest and looked down to see her necklace floating before her, freed from the confines of being tucked beneath her black shirt. The long simple chain held a single item upon it, a silver antique wedding band, tastefully decorated with engravings of soft swirls and seashells. The ring rotated gently between them, allowing the both of them to quietly observe the artistry before Erik let the necklace drop against the front of her shirt.

"What made you leave?" He wondered aloud, genuine concern in his eyes as he sat back on the closed lid of the toilet. "Was it when you found out about the injections."

"Yes." She uttered, tucking the necklace back beneath her shirt. "But, unfortunately, it's a little more complicated than that." And with one last quick look, she left him in the bathroom and headed back to her seat.

 **December 20th 1969**

Faint moonlight filtered in through the crack in the curtains as Laurien turned over in her bed, sighing quietly as she nuzzled her face into her pillow to the sound of Charles' soft breaths that filled her ears as he snored next to her, something that often occurred when he slept on his back. Laurien blinked sleepily and propped herself onto her elbows as she observed him in the darkness, gently sweeping a strand of his floppy hair away from his brow with her delicate fingers, being careful to not wake him from what appeared to be a rare dreamless slumber. She felt a small tug at her lips and she rested her head against his shoulder, breathing in his pleasant scent as she settled herself in again to sleep, only to flinch when a loud series of barks erupted from somewhere in the mansion.

Charles stirred at the noise and rolled onto his side to face her, his eyes still shut. "Hmm? What's that?"

"It's Shasta." Laurien groaned, each burst of barking setting her further on edge.

"She must have found a mouse or something again." He slurred lazily, still half asleep as his hand blindly searched for her until he grasped her hip loosely. "Don't worry about it."

"Yeah, maybe." She murmured, but couldn't stand the thought of her waking Hank from some well-deserved rest. "I'm going to go get her." She stated, making to roll over and swing her legs over the side of the bed.

"No, no, no, no." Charles blurted, grabbing onto her waist and pulling her in close to prevent her from getting out of the bed. "Stay with me." He said; his voice muffled as he kissed her neck. "She'll stop eventually."

"You make a compelling argument." She mumbled drowsily, his kisses intoxicating to the point of deliriousness. "But I really should get her."

Charles moaned into her collarbone and she gave him a quick peck on the forehead before leaving the warm comfort of his arms and dragging her feet over to the door. The moment she opened it, Shasta's barks grew louder, ringing in her ears as she made her way down the hallway and wrapped her navy robe snuggly around her.

It felt eerie to walk around the empty hallways of the mansion since the events of a few weeks earlier. With the Vietnam War escalating drastically over the past couple of months, the government had held a lottery, containing papers with numbers one through three hundred and sixty-six, for each day of the year. Alex and many of the other teachers and students had been chosen, and a strange hush had fallen over the mansion since they'd left.

She'd soon made it to the main hall, which was tastefully decorated for the holidays, when the barking halted abruptly. Laurien was left in utter silence as she slowed to a stop, her hand hovering an inch away from the staircase banister. Frowning, she glanced down to the lower level, not spotting anything out of the ordinary, which prompted her to turn on her heel and return the way she came.

The only sound that greeted her now was the one of her pajama pants swishing as she walked, her bare feet treading silently along the carpeted floor. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, itching to get back to bed as soon as possible, but the walk seemed to last forever.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she turned around the corner and saw a mass of people making their way down the hallway from the other end, blocking her way back to Charles. It took her a moment to fully register what was before her, but when she did, a wave of alarm flashed through her entire body as if she'd had a barrel full of ice water poured over her head as she noticed how heavily armed the men were.

Laurien bolted to the side, narrowly avoiding a half dozen darts that buried themselves with dull thuds into the wall that had been previously behind her. She reached out with her powers to grab onto a nearby vase to smash over one of the men's heads, but was confused when it didn't budge. With a rapid change of plans, she dashed back down the adjoining hallway and hid behind a pillar, breathing heavily as her brain worked a mile per minute.

She batted all the racing thoughts away with difficulty and tried to focus onto the nearest object, an enormous hardcover copy of War and Peace that Charles seemed to leave everywhere, but she was horrified when nothing happened. She glanced down at her hands, flexing them in an attempt to see if they just needed a stretch, considering it had been a while since she'd used her powers and tried again, but nothing, no fire clawing up her arms, no ice in her veins.

With her breaths quickening rapidly as panic started to set in, she clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound, her fingernails digging into her skin painfully as the sound of multiple soft footsteps could be heard from the other side of the pillar. Laurien squeezed her eyes shut as they passed, her heart beating so unbearably loud against her ribcage that she feared that it would give her away.

"How many of 'em?" A gruff, yet quiet, voice demanded authoritatively, startling Laurien as it broke the terrifyingly still silence.

"Approximately three, sir." Another voice responded, obviously trying to match the strictness of the other's, though ultimately failing as his voice broke on the last syllable. "The girl that we just spotted, the telepath and the blue freak."

Laurien stifled a growl that had begun to rise in her throat at the mention of the word 'freak', straining her ears to hear what was being said afterwards.

"All of them are specified to be of extreme importance to obtain alive and without extensive injury to the specimen. You hearin' me?" The first man said to the rest of the group, cocking his gun. "She's already seen us, so we need to move quickly, seein' as she's probably on her way to warn the others."

Specimens, she thought, rolling the word around in her head as a chill ran down her spine. Usually that was a word for a foreign entity or a reptilian creature, as it had been used to describe many such creatures in Bastijn's science fiction novels, but never humans, though she guessed that they most likely weren't humans in the government's eyes.

She waited for them to pass fully into another hallway before cautiously stepping out from behind the pillar and creeping toward where she'd left Charles. She burst into the room and was surprised to find that the bed was empty, the covers pulled back and exposing the fitted sheet that covered the mattress. Suddenly fearing that they had hit him with a dart as he slept and had already taken him away, she scrambled over to his side of the bed. Her fears were stemmed by the absence of his slippers that he usually kept at the foot of the bed, reassuring herself that the intruders most certainly wouldn't have snatched up his slippers with them if they had taken him.

She allowed herself a moment of reprieve as the weight of all of it hit her like a truck. There were people in the mansion with the intentions of rounding them up and taking them away, and all the while, Charles, and now Laurien, didn't have their powers.

"Shit." She murmured, raising a shaking hand to her forehead as she tried to figure out what to do.

Her chest heaved spastically, a wave of intense panic overtaking her as she paced the room, running her fingers through her sleep tousled hair, suddenly feeling the desire to rip chunks of it from her scalp as if it would help the situation. Laurien lifted her arm and stretched it tentatively toward the bed, trying with all her might to move one of the pillows. She strained her mind, searching for a small hint of her departed powers, but yet again, nothing came of it.

Laurien wanted to scream, but sank down to her knees and stared at the aged hardwood, tears rising to her wide eyes as she clutched her stomach. Ever since Erik had told her about Angel's death a few years ago, she'd had nightmares of faceless beings experimenting on her, ripping her skin apart with scalpels and injecting her with needles, and at the moment, her fear seemed to be getting the better of her. Her fingers clasped the ring on her right hand, spinning it round and round feverishly before her movements finally ceased and she gripped her hand into a tight trembling fist.

Thoroughly angry with herself, she wiped her tears away with the sleeve of her robe and interrupted her haggard breaths with one deep long inhale and exhale before getting to her feet.

She crept back over to the door, her hand firmly grasping the handle as she rested her head against the solid oak, willing it to calm her and give her strength. Creaking it open a sliver to see into the hallway, she found it to be empty, but she knew that the group she'd run into couldn't be working alone. Making a quick, yet reckless decision, Laurien quickly grabbed the flashlight from one of the drawers of the desk, gripping it tight in her shaking hand, as she would a weapon, before slipping into the hallway.

 **DUN DUN DUN... Sorry Erik/Laurien shippers. Hopefully no one's too angry with me... Anywho, you are all in for an intense next chapter! In other news, the season finale of Game Of Thrones was utterly epic and I enjoyed every minute of it. Alright, I also hope that all you guys from the UK and the US are alright, I think we can all agree that 2016 has been a complete asshole to everyone. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review!  
**


	33. Chapter 33

**Hey guys, yeah, I couldn't even wait twelve hours before posting another chapter, but I guess this can be part two of the festivities. Though originally, the flashback was all one chapter, but I decided to split it into two for a better flow. I started writing this chapter bit by bit maybe three months ago, so hopefully it lives up to expectations. Anywho, here's chapter 33, enjoy!**

She padded tentatively down the way, her body feeling uncoordinated and foreign as she tried to place her feet quietly against the carpet flooring as she neared a corner. She grimaced as her trembling fingers touched the wall to her right for support, suddenly feeling the absence of her mutation as the texture felt dull and bland. She hated it.

The sudden crackle of a walkie talkie alerted her only a second before another heavily armed man emerged from around the corner, allowing Laurien enough time to grab onto his gun and point it away as she drove her fist into his throat, effectively reducing his rising cry of alarm into a faint gurgle as he clutched his neck. As the man fell forward, Laurien kicked up her knee into his face, wincing as she heard the telltale crunch of his nose breaking.

An idea coming to mind, she grabbed onto the now unconscious man's vest and dragged him into one of the nearby rooms, flicking on the light to reveal an empty bedroom. She dropped him with a small thump, taking a deep calming breath before she crouched down to commence rifling through his belongings. Under any other circumstances, she wouldn't have dared go through another person's things, but the way she saw it in that moment, he was the one at fault here, not her.

She immediately grabbed onto the gun and placed it carefully to the side, her fingers nervously tapping the cold metal as she stared at it, before finally popping out the cartridge and tilting it, letting all the bullets fall harmlessly onto the carpet. She slid the gun under the bed and returned to the unconscious man, now searching his vest, only to find a small piece of paper in his breast pocket. She unfolded it and found herself looking at a photo of the man next to a beautiful young Asian woman, both of which were smiling brightly at the camera as they held a small newborn baby in their arms. Laurien frowned as she glanced at the man, suddenly noticing the wedding band on his finger before looking back at the photo, wondering if the woman in the picture knew what her husband was doing in the mansion.

Laurien quickly folded up the photo again and carefully slid it back in the man's pocket before getting to her feet. She opened the door hesitantly, peaking out into the hallway through the slight slit, only to find to her relief that it was still empty. She crept out, silently closing the door behind her before she made her way toward the direction of Charles' study instead, hoping to stumble upon at least one friendly face.

She clenched her jaw bitterly and took another step further before stopping abruptly as a smaller group of agents exited a nearby room. "There she is!" A cry rang out, causing her to jump as it scratched her eardrums with its shrill volume.

Spurring herself into action, she smashed the flashlight into the shorter man's face as she heard an ear-shattering crack that most certainly didn't come from the flashlight. The other two didn't have enough time to raise their guns before she was on them, elbowing the younger one in the gut as she kicked the other hard in the groin, before kneeing him in the face as he doubled over in pain. He collapsed to the ground, unconscious, therefore allowing her to concentrate all her force on the younger man, who, upon a quick second glance, looked to be about her age. She slammed her palm into his nose, instantly feeling the gush of blood on her hand before she grabbed his head and rammed it through the drywall.

She gave herself a moment to catch her breath, placing a hand against the wall to steady herself, before abandoning the scene of the fight and cautiously traversing down another passageway with her flashlight still in hand, when she froze at the sound of a ferocious roar from a floor below.

"Hank." She whispered, immediately quickening her pace. She made it to the main atrium in no time and hurried down the stairs at break neck speed. She followed the sounds of men shouting and Hank growling, when she tripped over something solid. Laurien crashed to the ground heavily, her quick hands saving her from completely falling flat on her face. The flashlight sprang out of her grip and rolled just out of reach before she groaned and turned over to see what she'd tripped on. She regretted it almost immediately, as she saw Shasta's limp corpse lying lifelessly on the carpet with a bullet shot clean between her big brown eyes, a trickle of blood oozing from the hole.

Laurien stared unseeingly at her beloved companion, her insides twisting painfully as she reached out a hand and made to stroke Shasta's reddish fur, when a sudden crack rang out through the main atrium and a sharp blossom of fire ripped through her left shoulder, sending a small spray of red from her chest. Yelping in surprise and pain, Laurien spun around to see another heavily armed man just limping out from where she had just been heading to find Hank, his gun trained steadily on her. A disgusted grimace crept on his face that was heavily marred by a large bloody claw mark, as his thumb moved to pull back the hammer on the gun. Laurien didn't wait for him to do so before scrambling to her feet and sprinting back up the stairs, flinching as a bullet whistled past her head.

A segment of the banister near her hand splintered from the impact of another bullet and was quickly accompanied by more cracks and ricochets. What the hell was wrong with this guy, she demanded loudly in her mind, and all the other men had been using tranquilizer guns, why not him? She thankfully was able to get out of range as she turned another corner, though only to run into three more men. She cursed mentally before quickly disarming one of them and slamming the butt of his gun into his temple, efficiently eliminating one hostile.

She rounded quickly on the other two as cries of surprise were ripped from their mouths as their comrade collapsed into a heap. Laurien kicked away one of the men's guns and he swiftly pulled out a knife instead, twisting it in his hand before advancing to slash at her. She blocked his blow, locking his arm in her tight grip as she noticed the other man advancing on her. Laurien used the man she was holding as leverage, as she kicked up and hit the other man solidly in the face, his head snapping back and colliding with the wall, before he slowly slid to the ground.

Now focusing on the man with the knife, she tried to drive her knee into his stomach, but before she could, he pushed her back into the window behind her. The impact shattered the glass and sent it raining down on the both of them, the shards slicing at their vulnerable skin. The man rammed her sideways into the side of the window where long shards of glass stuck out, burying them deep in her arm as she cried out in pain. She released her grip on him and managed to push him back with her foot. When she tried to advance toward him, she found to her horror that she was stuck, the glass so deeply imbedded in her arm that she had to place her hand against the wall and jerk her arm hard enough to break the shards from the window.

She groaned loudly as fire clawed up her now useless arm, hot blood seeping out from where the glass shards were pierced through her skin, feeling sick as she felt them grind against bone. The man ran at her again with the knife and she lifted her bad arm in response, meaning to block his hand, but she miscalculated his blow and the knife stabbed clean through her forearm. She grunted, more in surprise than pain as fear sparked numbly in her chest as she realized that she was getting careless. She found that the pain wasn't as intense as she expected, in fact, the man seemed more surprised than her, his jaw hanging open almost apologetically. Using his surprise to her advantage as his grip loosened on the knife handle, she rammed her elbow into his nose, sending him stumbling back. He suddenly picked up the tranquilizer gun and pointed it at her defensively before she could get anywhere close to disarm him again.

She backed off quickly, raising her good hand up in front of her. "Look, just-" But she found herself faltering, the blood loss already affecting her body as it gushed down her arm. She spotted his faded nametag pinned to his chest and felt a small jolt as she grasped onto her last lifeline. "Stryker, right?" She tried tentatively, wondering if she could appeal to his good nature, that is, if he had any. "We don't have to do this."

The man stared at her, his young face bloody and red from his gushing broken nose. His blue eyes flitted down at her tortured arm that hung limply by her side, the knife still sticking out of it. "I didn't want to hurt you."

Though she felt the life slowly draining out of her, she still mustered a small laugh. "Really?"

He didn't reciprocate her gesture, but even so, he unconsciously lowered the gun a bit. Before either of them could even move a muscle, another crack rang through the hallway as pain lanced through her abdomen. She stumbled backwards and looked down, immediately spotting a dark red dot spreading across the fabric of her housecoat. Her legs buckled unexpectedly beneath her, sending her crashing down to her knees as she braced herself, her bloody hand shaking against the expensive carpet as she bled out onto it.

"Finally." Murmured the shooter from the atrium, as he neared the younger man, who stood still, eyes wide in shock.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Nate?" He demanded in disbelief. "They told us not to kill them."

"What?" The man asked, waving his gun tauntingly in front of the other man's face. "He said nothing about hurting them, so it's fair game. Besides," He snarled, before suddenly kicking Laurien in the stomach, eliciting a sharp scream that echoed through the hallway as she curled in on herself, clutching her steadily reddening abdomen. "This is for what the other one did to me."

Laurien sobbed hoarsely as she tried to slide her legs underneath herself once more in an effort to crawl away, but a hard boot slamming down on her ankle stopped her in her tracks as a muffled snap met their ears.

"Stop it!" The younger man growled; roughly pushing the man called Nate away from her as she bit down hard on her hand to stop herself from screaming out again in agony, blood pooling thickly in her mouth.

"They don't pay me enough to deal with this shit." Nate said before suddenly throwing the younger man back against the wall and raising his tranquilizer gun at him. The dart buried itself in his neck and not a moment later, he collapsed, unconscious.

Nate then sidling over to her and snatched up her bad arm, causing her to cry out again as he dragged her away from the other bodies before unceremoniously dropping her onto the carpet.

He then grabbed her by the throat, cutting off her airway as he lifted her up onto her knees. She choked, clawing at his hands desperately before suddenly stilling as he brought the barrel of the gun to her forehead.

"What happened to no killing?" She mustered, her voice strained and raspy as blood dribbled out of her mouth.

He smiled strangely. "Change of plans."

She stared up at him, her vision blurring around the edges as he squeezed. She found herself nodding minutely, the thought of Bastijn and Roosje coming to her mind. She winced as hot coals seemed to settle in her chest, so much pain pulsating through her body; she couldn't stand it any longer.

Just then, a terrible thought came to mind, that maybe it would be kinder for him to shoot her. It was what she'd wanted ever since the fire, wasn't it? So many terrible thoughts swirled through her mind suddenly, as if someone had opened the gates that contained every doubt, worry, and torment, and released them to wreak utter havoc in her head. Facing the facts, her brown eyes slowly drifted down from his cruel grinning face, not wanting it to be the last thing she saw.

He adjusted his grip on the gun, just as an icy twinge sparked through her veins, startling her into coughing up more blood as it dawned on her, that whatever had happened to her powers was wearing off and they were gradually coming back. A battle between conflicting emotions ripped through her mind, on one hand, she was so close to finishing it, but on the other hand, as the spark of ice grew steadily larger, she couldn't help but wonder if she could just keep him busy long enough…

"You must really hate mutants, huh?" She rasped, silently willing for someone to arrive as she tried to stall him.

"You don't belong." He whispered, his breath ghosting revoltingly over her face. "Just call me the exterminator."

Suddenly having enough, she spat a spray of blood in his face, causing him to recoil in disgust as his grip on her loosened. She slammed her fist down on the hand that held her throat, effectively releasing herself. She yanked the knife out of her arm in one swift tug, hissing as she felt the pulsations of blood spilling out of her, before stabbing it deep into his thigh. He yelled in anger and pain, gripping the handle of the knife sticking out of his leg as Laurien tried to hobble away with her broken ankle.

A sharp gasp was ripped from her lips as he caught her by the hair and pulled viciously before flipping her over onto her back, his knee dug into her abdomen and aggravating the gunshot wound, making her scream in agony from the immense pressure. He jabbed the barrel of the gun against the middle of her forehead, his finger tensing over the trigger. In a last ditch attempt, Laurien reached out desperately with her powers, willing the gun to budge, until it finally did.

Laurien flinched as the gun went off, her mouth opening in a silent cry of pain as she felt as if someone had just cracked open her skull and poured liquid metal over the side of her head. She brought up her hands to clutch her head as steaming liquid gushed over her fingers and onto the expensive carpet. The pressure on her stomach was relieved as she became aware of a predatory roar, which was quickly followed by a shrill yell that rang eerily in her ears. Laurien tried to pry open her eyes through the crippling pain, but was horrified to find that she couldn't see out of her left eye, and that the right was gradually leaving her as well.

Her fingernails clawed blindly at the carpet as she tried to turn over, before falling back with a yelp as her stomach shrieked for her to stop. She laid still, clutching her stomach, as the life seemed to be draining out with the hopes of her future, the blood seeping through her housecoat and soaking her fingers in their hot magma.

"Laurien!" A familiar voice cried out as hands suddenly grabbed her with their comforting touch and pulled her against a solid figure, causing her to bite back a cry of her own as the movement rattled her head and strained her abdomen. "No, no, no! Don't do this to me. What the hell happened?"

Laurien tried to speak, but found that a growing lump in her throat was obstructing her voice as she tried to get a firm grasp on Charles' hand that was applying pressure to her head, feeling as if he were trying to crush her skull.

"Charles, let me see." Hank demanded urgently as he swatted away the other man's hand, the slight growl in his voice letting her know that he was in his blue Beast form.

She flinched as she felt his clawed hands touch her tender scalp, whimpering as another agonizing wave rippled through her abdomen.

"The bullet hit her, but I believe it was only a graze." Hank explained hurriedly, setting Laurien's nerves on fire as her vision completely left her.

"I- I can't see." She forced out from behind clenched teeth, blinking hard, but getting nothing from it.

"It's all right, love." Charles murmured in her ear, trying to hide his panicked and shaking tone, though failing horribly as Hank searched her for more wounds. "There's just blood in your eyes, we'll get it washed out just as soon as we get you help, okay?"

He rocked her body back and forth slowly, his hands resting firmly against the side of her head as a sickening stickiness soaked through her clothes. "You're all right." He whispered repeatedly, his voice hoarse and quiet against her right temple, as if he seemed to be trying to convince himself more than her.

"Charles, we need to get her someplace safe, she's already lost too much blood, and we'll be sitting ducks if we stay here." Hank urged, his rapidly changing fingers gripping her wrist to take a pulse as they reverted back those of a human. "We'll take her to the lab."

Charles nodded uncertainly against her before she felt his arms slip beneath her shoulders and knees, and was greeted with the sudden sensation of weightlessness as she was carried away. Her head fell limply against his shoulder as they moved down the hallways, their cautious steps always slowing to check around the corner before continuing on.

Laurien couldn't be sure how much time had passed, but they suddenly seemed to arrive in the lab after a slow blink of her blind eyes. She was set down on a cold countertop that sent an intense chill throughout her entire body the moment it made contact with her skin. She was only just aware of the radio on the other side of the lab starting to play the early guitar twangs of her's and Charles' favorite song, House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals. The tune echoing eerily through the room as her vision blurred around the edges, the faint memory of them singing and dancing to the song only a week ago rose to the forefront of her mind.

"Laurien?" Charles asked, his hand resting against firmly against her head.

She grunted weakly in reply, the lump in her throat having reappeared, as her thoughts had turned into something akin to a fuzzy television screen without a signal.

"Charles, I need you to go barricade the door." Hank urged as hands frantically pulled at her housecoat, pulling off the layers to reach the bullet wound in her abdomen that was still spurting blood. Charles' touch reluctantly left her as he went to move one of the surrounding lab tables against the door.

Hank finally lifted her shirt, the soaked fabric peeling off unbearably slow. "Jesus." He whispered beneath his breath as he revealed the nightmare that her stomach must have been.

Pain sparked through the wound as she felt Hank prod it tentatively with his fingers and she groaned through clenched teeth as she gripped the counter tightly. Intense pulsations rippled through her stomach, as a cold metal was inserted in the wound and she went to grab Hank's hands. "What are you doing?" She gritted out, her words garbled and warped through the thick metallic liquid coating her mouth.

"I need to get the bullet out." He explained hurriedly, before ripping his hands out of her grip and inserting the metal clamp back into the bullet hole. Laurien cried out and sent the clamp soaring across the room with her powers before latching onto the bullet buried deep in her skin and ripping it out, narrowly suppressing another scream as her entire body shuddered violently. Her arms suddenly felt like lead as her limbs weighed her down, feeling like she could melt through the table she was lying on and sink to the earth's core.

She was only a tiny bit aware that someone was shaking her as her head lolled to the side, the mottled bloody chunks of her scalp sparking painfully as they met the cold metal of the table. Warm hands grabbed her face and forced her eyelids open, though she didn't see the point, considering that she couldn't see anything anyways.

Blood spilled out from her mouth and down her chin, a wave of burning heat seemingly engulfing her entire head as she laid sprawled on the table, her whole body tense and still as the temperature rose steadily higher.

Laurien blinked and was suddenly back in the wreckage of her new home in Rotterdam, with cinders and ash floating from the ceiling as she feebly tried to suck in air. The fiery particles traveled into her lungs, layering themselves thickly upon her walls and stifling what life was left. Her breaths began to slow, as time seemed to move at a monotonous pace, until her chest stilled completely, and she disappeared into oblivion.

Almost instantly, she was brought back abruptly with a painful jolt. She gasped weakly, eyes fluttering unseeingly as she felt something being poked into her good forearm. The same warm hand was gripping her face, fingers digging into her blood soaked skin, desperation reeking through its touch.

She coughed arduously and was hastily turned over on her side as she felt like her lungs were going to burst out of her chest. Strong hands held her arms in their tight grip as she was shifted onto her back once again, making her feel grounded as her head pulsated loudly. Laurien suddenly became aware of how much her chest hurt, as if someone had beaten her repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Her blood smothered mouth throbbed along with the sound of someone pounding against metal, as she coughed again and reached out blindly for Charles, but before she could touch him, a stabbing pain streaked up her good arm and a scream was ripped from her lips, before she passed out again.

 **Heh, heh... Not exactly a cliffhanger, because you know, she's still alive in 1973. I was quite amused by the reception of the previous chapter, I didn't know you guys liked them together that much. It's not set in stone yet, but I viewed the decision as a bit of a mercy play on my part, because if she ended up with him, she would ultimately have to die in Apocalypse, and I don't think we're quite done with her yet, not by a long shot... :) I could always be swayed if a strong argument was presented...(wink wink) Anywho, I hope you enjoyed, thank you very much for reading and please leave a review! Bye Lovelies!**


	34. Chapter 34

**Hey guys, long time, no see. Sorry! :) Here's chapter 34! Enjoy!**

Laurien felt herself starting to nod off as the natural light streaming in from the windows of the airplane began to dim, the night descending upon them all. She fought against the weight of her eyelids, her eyes pleading for rest, but unfortunately that was something that she wouldn't provide, considering that she preferred for the plane to reach its destination in one piece.

She curled her hand into a fist and buried her fingernails into her palm, willing for the slight pain to keep her from descending into slumber. A small grumble brought her attention to the burly man sitting at the far end of the plane. Logan's eyes were closed peacefully as his chest rose gently, and Laurien found herself seething quietly as she watched him do what she hadn't done successfully in three years.

As she observed him, her eyes picking up on the creases of his rather handsome face, all of which displayed infinitely more information than a high school textbook could ever dream to convey, she was surprised to find that it wasn't so difficult to believe that he was a man from the future. The concept was quite familiar to her, considering all the science fiction novels Bastijn had made her read to him when he was a child. Logan was just another man out of time, looking to change even the slightest thing that might affect the future, similarly to how Ray Bradbury had depicted by the accidental murder of a butterfly.

Lauren found herself wondering if that concept was even true. Would killing a butterfly transform the very fabric of history? And if Logan was correct, would stopping Raven from assassinating Trask save them all from the bleakest of futures, as he described? Extreme doubt settled in her mind as her gaze finally drifted away from the sleeping man and rested on the worryingly blank face of her supposed aunt, Sera.

The redhead was playing with the frayed shoelace once again, coiling it delicately in her hand before letting it unwind and starting from square one again. Laurien eyed her nervously, crossing her arms protectively over her chest as she did so. Sera's previous outburst still echoed eerily in her head, forcing Laurien to come to terms with what she had said.

Had Charles purposefully sought her out because of the information that Sera had given him, and if so, why had he lied to her about it for ten whole years? Charles had known that Laurien still had family, yet he had withheld Sera's existence from her. And why, she hadn't the slightest clue?

Over the past three years, it seemed as if her perspective of Charles had completely morphed, transforming him into someone she didn't recognize anymore. The Charles she knew from 1962 wouldn't have kept secrets or forced things upon those close to him without their knowledge.

Laurien took a deep breath as her head started to throb from being overloaded with conflicting thoughts and questions. She swiftly placed two pills between her teeth before grabbing a nearby water bottle and gulping them down. She sensed Charles' gaze upon her from her left, but soon felt it shift as Erik appeared from the back of the airplane, carrying a set board of chess along with him. A suddenly warm glow blossomed in her chest, causing it to restrict and make it almost impossible for her to breathe as she watched him set the board down on the table before Charles.

"Fancy a game?" Erik wondered aloud, his voice noticeably light as he neared the other man. "It's been a while."

Charles wasn't having any of it. "I'm not in the mood for games, thank you." He said, turning his head to resume looking out the dark window.

Erik, to his credit, didn't back down. He tentatively seated himself upon the armrest of the chair that Laurien had her feet resting, before reaching over the chess board for a glass, and a bottle containing what she assumed to be scotch.

He poured himself a glass of the golden liquid and brought it up to his lips, his breath lightly marring the crystal with its sweet heat. "I haven't had a real sip in ten years." He murmured softly before tipping the glass and downing the whole thing. He closed his eyes, his jittery emotions settling into a faint buzz before he opened them again, only for them to fall upon his old friend. "I didn't kill the president."

"The bullet curved, Erik." Charles reminded him, his eyebrows raised disbelievingly.

Erik frowned, his face growing hard. "Because I was trying to save him. They took me out before I could."

"Why would you try and save him?" Charles demanded coldly. It was a fair question, seeing as Laurien found herself asking as well.

"Because he was one of us." Erik implored, sending a shock wave of realization throughout both Charles and Laurien's bodies.

Lauren found her gaze directing itself at Charles' face as it dawned on him, his red rimmed eyes rapidly becoming wet as he stuttered out his words, his guarded hostility suddenly vanishing. "You must think me so foolish. You've always said that they would come after us."

Erik shook his head, pouring himself another glass as he sat down opposite Charles. "I never imagined they'd use Raven's DNA to do it."

"When did you last see her?"

"The day I left for Dallas."

"And how was she?" Charles asked tentatively.

"Strong, driven, loyal."

"How... how was she?" Charles repeated, his voice shaking ever so slightly.

"She was... we were..." Erik tried, but ultimately gave up. "I could see why she meant so much to you. You should be proud of her, Charles. She's out there fighting for our cause."

Lauren stiffened at his words, knowing that he had taken a bad step, but she resigned herself to looking down at her hands, suddenly wondering if she shouldn't be listening in to the conversation.

"Your cause." Charles corrected tersely. "The girl I raised, she was not capable of killing."

"You didn't raise her, you grew up with her. She couldn't stay a little girl forever, that's why she left."

Charles raised his eyebrows at him. "She left because you got inside her head." He said, his words slow and accusatory as he carefully enunciated every one of them.

Laurien could hear the slight humorless smirk in Erik's voice as he spoke. "That's not my power. She made a choice."

"But now we know where that choice leads, don't we? She's going to murder Trask, they're going to capture her, and then they're going to wipe us out."

"Not if we get to her first. Not if we change history tomorrow." Erik said, the waves emitting from him becoming nervous and sorrowful, prompting Laurien to look up from her hands in surprise. "I'm sorry, Charles. For what happened, I truly am."

Charles stared at him, his blue eyes flitting over to Laurien for the briefest of moments, her awareness of the situation startling him into sitting up in his seat with a quick clearing of his throat as he leaned toward the chess board. "It's been a while since I've played."

Erik's head bowed in a slight nod, as if accepting the wordless message that had passed between the two men at the sudden change of subject. "I'll go easy on you. Might finally be a fair fight."

Charles didn't smile, but she could tell that something within him had changed. "You have the first move." He mumbled, and a moment later, a pawn from Erik's side moved forward of its own accord.

As Charles pondered his move, Erik finally realized that she was watching and met her gaze. Her vision briefly flashed a slight tint of gold before she turned back to the window, hurriedly wondering as to what had caused such a reaction within her.

A spark of satisfaction from the other man across from her peaked her curiosity, and Laurien was able to glance up quick enough to see Logan looking at the two other men from beneath his eyelashes.

With a small smile tugging at her reluctant lips, she lowered her eyelids, and in a strong torrent of exhaustion, accidentally succumbed to the strong pull of sleep.

* * *

December 27th 1969

Laurien's fingertips lightly brushed the line of contorted skin that, only a week ago, had been her unblemished temple, wincing as the very thought of the bullet ripping through the flesh sent a piercing chill down her spine.

A faint ringing still echoed in her ears as she rested the unmarred side of her head on her fluffy white pillow, the noise becoming as constant as the sound of her shallow breathing.

She shouldn't be alive, she knew that. How she wasn't six feet under, she hadn't a clue, and neither Hank nor Charles had done much to help clarify anything for her in the way of answers. All she knew was she'd awoken a week ago with her chest hurting like hell and her head about to split open. Hank attributed the chest pains to the frequent uses of an AED and Charles' misguided attempts at CPR when she'd disappeared into the abyss not once, but twice.

It bothered Laurien to think of the fact that only ten years ago, she was in a position just like this one, knocking on Death's door for a brief chat before deciding to move in some other time.

As she took a deep breath, she lowered her good hand from her temple down to rest on her stomach, shutting her eyes tightly as she noticed that the slight swollen curve seemed to be a little less than the day before, or maybe she was just imagining it.

Laurien's eyes snapped open at the sound of her bedroom door creaking open slightly, revealing her fiancé as he peaked in to check on her for the first time that morning. She smiled and reached out her good arm for him, though as he came closer and she rubbed the mist from her eyes, her smile disappeared as she noticed that he was looking even worse than when she'd last seen him the night before. Charles' hair was unkempt and sticking up at odd angles, as if it had been pulled with great force, and prominent dark bags marred the skin beneath his shockingly red rimmed eyes, though an unmoving grin was plastered upon his face as he brought her hand to his lips.

As the room was tinted blue, she felt the sudden urge to cry, as the usually soft and calming contact of his mouth sent almost unbearable ripples through the many weaving rivers of her veins, all culminating into a suffocating sensation, as if someone were wrapping their hands around her throat and squeezing.

"Charles," She whispered, her voice frighteningly hoarse as she dragged her thumb softly across his jawline. "What's wrong?"

She could tell that behind his steady façade, there lied the grim frown that he'd come to wear when he thought she wasn't looking, and at her words, his content expression collapsed drastically into one of utter despair, revealing what he truly was in that moment, a broken man.

"Nothing, darling." He managed breathily, his eyes darting nervously around the room before resting on hers, the light blue irises drowning in a rising tide before it spilled over and tears tumbled down his cheeks.

Before she could open her mouth to plead with him, he let out a small sob as he brought her hand against his forehead and knelt next to her bed. "I'm s-so sorry, Laurien."

"What?" She asked, terrified as to what had caused him to say that. "Why?"

"It's all my fault." He wept, his entire body shaking violently beside her.

Laurien's breath hitched as panic began to set in within her. "No, no, it's not. It's theirs, Charles." She told him, shaking her head as she cupped his face to get him to look at her. "They did this, not you."

"But I did." He hiccupped, the red rings sharply contrasting the bright blue of his eyes. "You never knew, I had been giving you the-"

She frowned. "The what?"

"Laurien, I'm so sorry." He closed his eyes and letting another tear escape down his face and onto her hand. "The serum that I use to suppress my powers." He started, gripping her hand so hard that it hurt. "I've been giving you doses without you knowing."

A striking chill of horror washed over her as his words registered in her drug addled mind, her grasp on his face slipping as the life seemed to drain out of her as the unbearable seconds passed by. "That's why I couldn't… How- how long have you been doing this?"

"Almost two months." He admitted, a strong piercing knife a shame digging itself into her chest as he spoke.

Her hand slowly slid out of his grip, but he immediately grabbed it again and squeezed it, willing her to listen to him. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to protect you. With how things have been going with me, I-"

"No." She uttered quietly, her surroundings fading into a grey landscape as her head pounded loudly with the uneven beats of her severed heart.

"Laurien, I-"

A loud bang startled Charles, he spun around to see what had caused the noise, only to see that the doorway was wide open now, the handle partially buried in the adjacent wall from the force.

He slowly turned back around, the message engraving itself permanently into his mind as silent, yet angry, tears streamed down Laurien's face, her grey eyes not even daring to look at him as she stared at her hand that now grasped her hollow and slightly swollen stomach.

"Please." He whispered, but she didn't do so much as blink in response.

She heard him get to his feet, drop her hand, and move slowly toward the doorway, only to pause momentarily before leaving her alone to bask in the heavy silence that filled her bedroom. The door slammed shut of its own accord, the sound echoed through Laurien's ears as she continued to stare unseeingly down at herself until an uncontrollable sob ripped itself from her throat and she clapped a hand to her mouth to muffle the sound of anguish that escaped her as she buried her face into her pillow.

* * *

Laurien stiffened as she suddenly realized that someone was gently shaking her. It took a moment to fully remember where she was, but as the sight of inside of the plane drew back the memories of the past few days, she found herself calming down. Her faded eyes focused in on the warm hands on her forearms, and she soon found herself gazing upon Erik's concerned face.

"We've just landed." He informed her softly.

She nodded and sat up straight in her seat, moving to rub her eyes, though only to find them wet. Confused, she hurriedly wiped her eyes and took a deep breath before getting to her feet and following Erik out of the airplane.

 **Sorry again about the long wait, work's been a little bit hectic, and usually any time off is used for sleep. :) This is the first chapter written on my new laptop, we had to retire the old one because the hard-drive kept making a loud growling/gurgling sound.**

 **In other news, I received a really interesting book from my Oma for my birthday and I'm really excited to read it at the beach in a week! It's about a Dutch girl named Hanneke during the Second World War as she navigates the world of the Black Market and searches for a missing Jewish girl. I read the first couple of pages when I got it and I was hooked, saving it for vacation time though. Alright, hope you all enjoyed, thank you for reading, and please leave a review!**


	35. Chapter 35

**Hey! So, I got some time away from work for vacation time at the family cabin and settled down to write this bad boy for you guys. Hope you all enjoy chapter 35!**

This time, they had the sense to rent two cars, instead of one. Laurien sat comfortably in the passenger seat as Logan drove her and Erik toward where she assumed the Embassy must be blissfully unaware of their impending arrival, as Charles, Hank and Sera followed in another car just behind them.

Paris was bustling with immense crowds of people as usual, but a strange sensation hanged in the air above the whole city as the accumulative aura drifting off of every civilian amassed into one huge storm of excitement.

Laurien gladly welcomed a different emotion besides the one of impending doom that usually resided over cities of this scale in such times as these. The conclusion of a war was always a time of celebration, though much more enjoyable if you were on the winning side. Laurien was very young at the time of the liberation of Holland, but was old enough to remember the masses of parades as soldiers passed in their imposing tanks. The men from many different countries, though primarily Canada, were waving to the crowds with a girl on each of their arms who kissed them on the cheek, leaving a bright red lipstick mark on their war weary faces.

She'd been too small to see the procession on her own two feet, so her father had lifted her onto his shoulders and held on tight to her legs as she waved wildly at the soldiers with her tiny hands. Laurien remembered that during a speech at her parents' anniversary party, her father had stated that there were four days of his life that he cherished the most. The first had been the day he married her mother, the second was when Daaniel was born, the third when Laurien was born, and the fourth when Holland was liberated.

Her mother had tears of happiness in her hazel eyes as she lifted herself from her seat and kissed her husband before whispering something in his ear. Laurien's father's face had changed from one of confusion to one of elation as he hugged Laurien's mother and announced to the party that he was about to add another day to the list, seeing as she'd just told him that they were expecting another child.

Laurien had looked over excitedly at a twelve-year-old Dan when the news had finally sunken in, and they'd shared a smile before he kissed her on the forehead, telling her not to worry, that she'd always be his favorite.

She wondered if that were really true, if she had actually remained his favorite. He'd never snapped at the twins, never chastised them harshly or been mean to them, like he had been to her growing up, but yet Laurien was the only one he'd trusted to keep his secrets in time of need. No matter how terrified she was for him every single day for two entire years, thinking about him in Korea and fighting the invading Communists, she kept them from all those inquiring, against her better judgement.

Sometimes she found herself wondering if she hadn't kept his secret, then Dan, Roosje and Bastijn might still be alive today, all of them with families of their own and jobs to keep. She knew that it was cruel to think such things, as Charles had previously advised her not to, but she couldn't help it. And with that thought, she found becoming envious of Logan as they neared a closed gate leading to the Embassy. Everything that had gone wrong in his world could be fixed just by changing a single action of the past, an opportunity that most people would kill for.

A pair of guards neared them as the car rolled toward the gate, but before they could so much as utter "Halt!", the gate detached itself and scooped them up before pinning them to the nearby brick wall. The inside of the car remained silent as they rolled forward and passed the trapped guards, both of whom had been knocked unconscious by the force of the gate.

They parked next to such an extremely expensive looking car, that Laurien feared even glancing at it would scratch it. Their old chipped Camaros paled greatly in comparison to the spotlessly glistening black car as Laurien stepped out onto the pavement and took a look around, subtly noting the state of the art security cameras pointing in every direction through her aviators.

She self-consciously adjusted her black blouse as she stood up straight, minutely straightening the plunging neckline before her hands lifted to pull nervously at the grey scarf that was looped comfortably around her neck. They'd had time to change at the hotel before coming here, and now Laurien was deeply regretting not bringing an extra layer. Even with her heavy grey tweed coat and wool scarf, the deceivingly pretty looking Parisian weather still gave her a chill that seeped down to her bones.

She felt a firm hand against her waist and looked up to find that Erik was the one it belonged to. "We should get moving. The faster we get to Raven, the faster we can get out of here."

Laurien nodded, but swiftly disengaged herself from Erik when she saw Charles roll up with the others.

They entered the building together as a large group, following Charles and Erik as if they knew exactly where they were going. The walls of the embassy were ornate, decorated with large paintings of what Laurien assumed to be Gods, with their chiselled stomachs looking like a cheap chocolate bar and their arm muscles bulging like too many tomatoes in an elastic bag. In short, the Embassy was what she imagined the inside of Buckingham Palace to look like in London, with random flowery vases on useless antique tables that were only significant because some dignitary had touched it once a very long time ago.

Even with the cheesy decorations, Laurien knew that her father would have fallen to his knees at the sight of the pillars and the high arches that they passed as they hurried along down the hallways. They eventually made their way toward a large staircase, where the sudden rumbling of footsteps, quickly followed by the frantic chorus of foreign languages, erupted from several stories up.

"Something tells me that we're headed the right way." Hank mumbled under his breath, before they all raced up the stairs, Laurien taking them two at a time and very grateful that she decided to forgo the heels in her suitcase.

The roar of voices grew louder until several men dressed in rather important looking uniforms fled past them, barely noticing the drastically differently dressed group in their chaotic effort to descend the stairs. Erik and Charles simultaneously quickened their pace until they reached the top landing, striding down a long hallway before entering through a wide open doorway.

The room was trashed, chairs were toppled over everywhere she looked surrounding a long marble table upon which Raven, in her natural blue form, was crouched with a gun in her hand trained on a short man, his back hopelessly pressed against the wall.

"Raven." Charles called, the sound of his voice diverting Raven's attention to him instead of her target.

It was the opportunity that an unseen man to their right needed to send several Tasers into Raven's skin, causing her to collapse onto the table, the gun slipping from her trembling hand as she convulsed violently.

Erik waved his hand and buried the Taser into the uniformed man's chest instead, as Charles rushed to help calm Raven. Laurien fully entered the room with Hank, immediately hearing a strange alarm beeping to her left, and when she looked over, she saw the short man looking astonished at their group as a small remote in his hand blared annoyingly.

So, this was Trask, was all that registered in Laurien's brain as she looked between the man and his remote. A sudden heat flared within her as flashes of the attack on the mansion appeared before her eyes, prompting her to summon the remote out of the man's hand and let it hover above her hand. The remote began beeping spastically from being in such proximity to her, and she quickly understood what it was for. With a firm clench of her fist, the remote became a crumbling mess of plastic and glass, before falling to the ground in pieces.

She glanced at the man, making eye contact with him as her vision flashed a sickly shade of green and her stomach squirmed. "That was for Westchester." She murmured, watching him carefully as he blinked at her in morbid fascination instead of fear, a reaction that greatly disturbed her, before he slowly slid to the side and escaped out into the hallway.

She let him go, staring at the empty doorway for a moment longer before turning back to the reunion scene unfolding before her. Charles was stroking Ravens red hair, whispering unintelligible words in her ear as he did so.

A gradual uneasiness crept into Laurien's bones as the conflicted emotions of a painfully familiar presence became known to her and she found herself glancing over to Erik in alarm just in time to see him reach for the forgotten gun beside Raven, summoning it into his hand before he aimed it at the girl's head.

"No!" Laurien gasped, latching onto the casing of bullets residing within the firearm and causing it to jam as she urged them to stay still with her powers, but she found a strong resistance fighting to remove them from her control.

"Laurien, let go." Erik growled, the gun shuddering from their conflicting efforts as he tried to keep it steady in his hand.

"Erik, what are you doing?" Charles demanded carefully, standing in front of a now crouching Raven to block Erik's shot.

"Securing our future." Erik muttered, his brow furrowing as he tried to focus on overpowering Laurien, but he was admittedly failing, his emotions betraying his concentration. "Forgive me, Mystique. As long as you're out there, we'll never be safe."

"Get her out of here, Charles." Laurien ordered as her lip quivered, slowly beginning to move the gun down to the floor and out of harm's way.

"Use your powers, Charles, stop him." Raven pleaded desperately.

"He can't." Erik suddenly dropped his mental grip on the gun and threw his other arm at Laurien as she was yanked back by her belt, slamming her into the wall and allowing him to freely raise the gun and point it back at Raven.

Before she knew what had happened, Laurien found herself seeing Sera step in front of Erik and press the mouth of the gun against her forehead. Laurien's stomach dropped so suddenly that she thought her legs might fall along with them as she watched her last living relative purposefully place herself in front of a loaded firearm.

"Whoops." Sera snarled, her eyes tauntingly flashing as she stared down the man holding her life in his hands. "I guess we're at a bit of an impasse right now."

"Sera, what are you-" Charles started, his voice beyond panicked, but Sera cut him off.

"I'm going to give you a choice, Erik." She offered, using a blatant seriousness that Laurien had never seen before upon her face. "Something that I know that you haven't exactly had the opportunity to exercise over the years, but here it is."

Erik stared at her, his mouth set in a thin line, but Laurien could see that the wheels in his head were working furiously as the gun slightly wavered in his hand.

"You have the choice, to either shoot me in the head and then proceed to kill the innocent woman behind me," Sera then murmured, her hands flexing at her sides. "Or you can think about what you are doing, and who you are doing it in front of," She added, cocking her head toward Laurien and prompting Erik to glance in her direction as well. "Lower the gun, and we can all go home in one piece today."

Erik's blue eyes worked furiously as his conflicted conscience battled itself, his emotions burying themselves a hole in his chest as what he thought was right became warped and disfigured, before his eyes finally rested on Laurien.

Don't do this to me again, she pleaded silently, knowing full well that he couldn't hear her, but her chest tightened immensely when he nodded at her and he began to lower the gun.

Laurien hadn't even the time to let out a breath of relief before Sera's face broke out in a startlingly wry smile and in one swift motion, she suddenly grabbed Erik's wrist in a vice-like grip, lifted the gun back up against her forehead and forced his finger down upon the trigger.

The shot rang out through the large room and reverberated against the walls as blood splattered from the back of Sera's head and sprayed Charles' face as Raven got to her feet and ran as fast as she could toward one of the windows on the other side of the room. Laurien didn't seem to understand what had happened as she blinked and looked down at the draining corpse that had been her only lifeline to her family.

The blood spread out upon the floor, stretching its fingers from the fire of Sera's hair. Chunks of brain matter and fragments of bone were scattered across the red like boats and rocks in an ocean, sailing along with the current, reaching to grasp Laurien's shoes as the tides lapped at the soles.

She was barely aware of Erik raising his gun again, or Hank tackling him to the ground, or even the second bang of the gun, she was only aware of the shapes that the blood made upon the white marble tile. At first a dog, then an island before transforming into something unrecognizable as it continued to spread.

She was finally spurred back to reality when someone grabbed her face and forced her to look up. She met Erik's apologetic gaze as sound slowly filtered back through her ears, but before he could say anything, a fist came out of nowhere and sent Erik sprawling to the ground as a flash of pink and brown clothing signalled Charles' arrival as he pinned Erik underneath his smaller frame. It wasn't long before Erik had the upper hand and was able to push Charles' body off of him before heading toward the window, summoning something from the table into his hand as he did so.

A few ragged breaths later, Charles groaned and slowly got back to his feet, holding a hand to his cheek as he stumbled toward a thoroughly stunned Laurien. "It's going to be all right, darling, just wait a moment and-"

"Where am I?" A voice interrupted, suddenly reminding Laurien with a jolt that Logan was still there with them.

"Huh?" Charles grunted, looking over at the taller man exasperatedly as he tried to reach for Laurien's sleeve.

"How the hell did I get here?" Logan asked, his cloudy eyes finally focusing in on the people surrounding him.

"What? You came to us. Look, I don't have time for this right now. I'm Charles, you know that." Charles started before turning to Laurien to say something else, but Logan suddenly grabbed him by the lapels of his leather jacket and yanked him back to face him.

"Who are you?" He demanded, his voice rapidly becoming animalistic as he shook Charles violently.

"Charles Xavier." Charles cried out in surprise grasping at Logan's wrists as he tried to pry himself away from the man.

"I don't know you." Logan growled, his knuckles white from the immense grip he held Charles with. He backed away sharply when a blue furred Hank got to his feet after being knocked to the floor by Erik. "What the hell is that?" He yelled, staring wide-eyed at Hank's rapidly changing blue form.

Charles held a hand out to Hank, warning him not to get riled. "Whoa, look, I can deal with this. Just go, stop Erik!"

With that, Hank bolted toward the shattered window and leapt to the ground below, leaving the rest of them alone in the grand room, silent except for the subtle buzz of the man being Tasered.

Laurien finally got a good look at him and noticed to her horror that it was the same man from the night of the attack on the mansion. Heat seemed to overwhelm her as she slowly started to back away, raising a trembling hand to her mouth. "Stryker." She breathed, before a tumultuous chorus of cries from outside jarred her attention, prompting her to hurry toward the window after Hank.

"No, Laurien, come back here." Charles called after her, but she was undeterred as she stepped upon the window sill and looked down just in time to see Hank dragging Erik into the nearby fountain in the middle of the square. Laurien's eyes shifted to find where Raven was lying, blood smearing across the pavement with every movement of her leg.

Laurien gripped tightly to the edges of the window, glancing down apprehensively at the long drop to the ground. As a reckless idea came to mind, she grabbed onto her belt with her powers and gave an experimental tug, enabling herself to lift a few inches off the sill. Well, she thought, if Erik can do it, so can she.

Taking a deep breath and pushing everything else to the back of her mind, she lifted herself off the sill and outside, her hands shuddering violently with the effort as she tried to gently lower herself to the ground as the pavement rose quickly to meet her. Her feet hit clumsily, but she stuck the landing, all the while trying to ignore the way that her shoes tracked Sera's blood upon the pale cobblestone.

Seeing Raven struggle to her feet, Laurien rushed forward to help her, weaving with difficulty through the throngs of terrified civilians. The blue woman recoiled at her touch, but stilled when she realized that it was her. "Are you all right?" Laurien croaked out, her voice barely audible above the commotion surrounding them.

Raven nodded hurriedly, but tightly grasped Laurien's hand as she limped forward, blood oozing out from the bullet wound in her calf. Laurien helped her along, snaking an arm around Raven's waist to give her extra leverage, and all the while paying mind to the people rushing around them as metal fences were ripped from their original places and cars were tipped on their side with a magnetic pull toward the water fixture.

Laurien craned her head back to the fountain, seeing Hank push a gasping Erik into the water, his body pinning the metal bender down. She was afraid for a moment that Hank might actually drown Erik, but she then remembered what Logan had said on the plane, Erik was a survivor, and against all odds, he'd probably make it through yet another debacle with only a scratch to show for it.

They had almost reached the outskirts of the square before a loud growl alerted them to what was occurring behind them. Above the crowds of people, Laurien spotted Hank being lifted in the air as the metal of the ornate fountain wrapped around his wrists and ankles, pulling him off of the metal bender who was now getting to his feet.

"You have to get as far away as possible from here." Laurien instructed Raven, ushering her toward an empty car that hadn't been completely overturned. She carefully pushed the car back on its four wheels before opening the driver's side for Raven to enter.

"Wait," Raven exclaimed, gripping Laurien's wrist before she could get away. "Aren't you coming with me?"

"It'll be a dead giveaway if I join you, no matter what form you take." She explained hurriedly, watching in awe as Raven transformed into a bronzed brunette with enchanting hazel eyes and a thin face. "I'm sorry, I can't help you more than this."

"You've done more than enough." The other woman implored in a silky smooth voice, suddenly reminding Laurien of Sera's own that had only just recently been silenced and prompting a hot lump to rise bitterly in her throat as suppressed tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She nodded silently in response and stepped away from the car, allowing Raven to speed down the road and join the convoy of quaint automobiles fleeing the scene as well.

 **DUN DUN DUN! Hehehe... I'm going to hell. Anywho, as of a couple of days ago, I am officially a year older, but I feel less wise... huh. Had lots of pizza and ice cream and crap like that, along with finishing the book I was telling you all about. It's called The Girl In The Blue Coat, by Monica Hesse, and I highly recommend it to all of you, it is a wonderful read and very insightful to being in the Netherlands during the war. So, if any of you are wondering what it might have been for Laurien in World War Two if she was a bit older, there you go. They even mentioned stroopwaffles, oh, my favorite! I got that too from my Oma and Opa, a package of stroopies. :) Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, thank you for reading, and please review! Doei!**


	36. Chapter 36

**Hi... So, in short, I am sooooooo sorry this took so long. Here's chapter 36, enjoy!**

Laurien looked to the side, only to see Erik following Raven's car with his gaze. He took a step forward, raising his hand toward the tail lights, but before he could, Laurien swept his legs out from under him with her powers. He collapsed to the ground in a heap, and in his effort to save himself from further harm, a small object escaped his grasp and rolled across the pavement toward her. Curious, Laurien summoned the cylindrical object into her hand and rotated it between her fingers. It seemed to be some sort of case containing film, though it looked much more high tech than anything she recognized being used in cameras. Whatever was upon it, she knew that he had taken it from the table in the Embassy, and knowing Erik, it most likely meant that he had some ridiculously nefarious purpose for the information.

Laurien's gaze shifted back to where Erik was righting himself, eyes searching the ground for the roll of film before he noticed her standing across the square from him. His eyes narrowed as he spotted it in her hand, though at the same time, a small smirk crept its way onto his face, as if a wordless challenge had been set between the two of them.

In the corner of her eye, she saw the glints of several cameras as they captured the scene before them, and she was suddenly glad of the anonymity her aviators provided by shielding part of her face. A growl redirected her attention from Erik to where Hank was being held up on display like an animal at the zoo before another group of flashing lenses. Heat ignited within her and before she knew what was happening, her hand was raised and the cameras were each smashed into their own jagged lump of expensive equipment as the restraints around Hank promptly released him.

She let out a shuddering breath before a loud barrage of sirens alerted her to the arrival of multitudes of police cars, prompting her to turn on her heel and bolt. Laurien crossed the street at break neck speed, narrowly avoiding passing vehicles and frightened civilians as she leapt onto the curb and slipped down a nearby alleyway, all the while aware of the fact that Erik had begun to move as well.

As she ran down the long maze of alleyways, her hands fumbled with the buckle of her belt before finally unlatching it and ripping it from the loops of her jeans, though only to launch it into a dumpster as she sprinted past its putrid stench. The mouth of a random alleyway opened up onto a bustling road bursting to the brim with shoppers and merchants, somehow all unaware of the chaos unfurling a few streets over. Laurien reluctantly slowed to a fast walk, taking off the aviators that were slipping down her nose, as she weaved through the people and scanned the stores for an appropriate place to duck into for the next few minutes.

The strong scent of freshly baked bread mixed with the acrid clouds of smoke in the air met her nostrils, only diminishing the panic in her chest a bit as the massive crowds of people pressing against her started to cause an impending sense of claustrophobia to rise within her throat. She tightened her grip on the roll of film, wondering grimly as to what was so important upon it. Laurien seriously considered tossing it into a passing trash bin on the street, out of sight and out of mind, though she found that her fingers were rather unwilling to part with the film and stuffed it in her pocket.

Laurien's heart jumped in terror when something latched onto her arm and yanked her back, but when she looked down, she found that it had just been the curved wooden handle of an umbrella. The owner of which, an old woman with striking green eyes behind delicate eyeglasses and a gentle face, apologized profusely as she carefully disengaged Laurien from the handle.

"Ne vous inquiétez pas, Madame." Laurien replied, forcing out as calm as a smile as she could manage under the circumstances, her eyes flitting up anxiously at the passersby as she made to continue back on her way.

The woman's hand quickly grasped her own before she could leave, keeping her in place as concern bled freely through the woman's touch. "Es-tu correct, ma chère?" She asked, her voice soft and clear, nostalgically reminiscent of Laurien's Oma.

Laurien nodded stiffly, releasing a pained breath that clouded in the air before her. "Oui, merci."

The woman didn't look at all convinced, but quickly squeezed Laurien's hand comfortingly before releasing her. Laurien continued on her way, though as she raised her hand to move a strand of hair away from her eyes, she found that it was shaking intensely. Alarmed, she shoved it into her coat pocket, balling it up into a tight fist in an effort to control herself.

After another few blocks, Laurien took a chance and glanced back at the crowd following behind her, only to finally spot Erik's face a few dozen metres away, and not too far behind were the expertly pressed uniforms of military men hurrying along, their eyes scanning for the mutants responsible for the chaos. In a split second decision, Laurien quickly started heading in their direction as her mind screamed at her to stop, to turn around and keep running, though she awkwardly navigated her way through the sea of people, feeling like a salmon swimming upstream as elbows and shopping bags thumped against her.

Her stomach squirmed as she noticed that one of the military men had recognized Erik's back and they were swiftly closing the gap to him. Laurien's wrist flicked of its own accord, prompting a large vendor's cart to overturn directly into their path, spilling a multitude of fruits, vegetables and baskets onto the sidewalk as the men stumbled into one another as to not trip on the contents of the cart. Erik's head turned at the sound of the commotion just as one of the men slipped almost comically on a banana, and, seeing her opportunity, Laurien bolted forward and closed the gap between them. She collided with Erik's chest, latching onto the soaked material of his coat and pushed him back into the ideal cover of a small alleyway between two buildings.

He let out a small grunt of surprise, grabbing onto her wrists and trying to twist out of her grip, but with the added aid of her powers, she easily pressed him up against the brick wall with her body and away from the prying eyes of the street.

He stilled when his eyes took in her familiar features, though he soon frowned at the shade of sea green that her eyes greeted him with. He opened his mouth to say something, but Laurien hushed him by reaching up and brushing her fingertips softly against his lips as she peered warily around the corner at the street. The military uniforms soon passed, though Laurien did not allow herself the luxury of a sigh of relief as she turned her attention back to the man she was pinning against the wall.

They stood staring at one another for a moment or two, as words were silently conveyed through their ragged breaths and the subtle movements of their eyes. Erik's hand came up tentatively to cup her face, his thumb gently rubbing against her cheek as she reluctantly savoured his touch, revelling in the compatible transmissions of waves passing between them.

"We need to go." She whispered, the words tasting like acid in her mouth as the dampness of his clothes seeped into the surface of hers.

Erik's forehead creased ever so slightly as he looked down at her, his fingers burying themselves intricately in her mess of hair. Despite her words, her breath caught in her throat as a sudden strange sensation coming over her and she raised a hand to rest on the back of his head to bring him to her level.

He winced at her touch, startling Laurien and snapping her out of her reverie as she frowned when she found a hot substance on her fingers, before holding it in the light and seeing a bright red streak slathered across her skin. "Shit." She murmured, immediately yanking off her scarf and balling it up to apply pressure to his head, though only to have her hands stilled by Erik's own warm pair.

"I'm all right." He stated, his hopelessly blue eyes boring into her own as his lips gave her a small smirk. "Just a souvenir courtesy of Beast."

She sighed, shaking her head dismissively before shifting her hand to hold his. "We need to get back to the hotel." She said, making to move and drag him along with her.

"No." Erik protested, tightening his grip on her to pull her to a stop. "Charles..." He faltered, his eyes lowering to his feet as he swallowed with difficulty. "Charles will be furious."

"Well, maybe you should have thought about that before you tried to shoot his sister." Laurien reasoned half-jokingly, but her jaw clenched tightly as anger flared within her. "Now, let's go."

He looked ready to protest again, but restrained himself and nodded solemnly. A minute spark of hope ignited in Laurien's mind, as she wondered if he perhaps already regretted his actions at the embassy and was ready to atone for them, but she almost certainly knew better than to get her sights up at this point.

She buried the thought in the back of her mind before pulling him into the depths of the alleyway, a faint humming sounding from the back of her head as her feet blindly led her and Erik away from the busy streets and toward the quieter outer reaches of the city. After they continued for over an hour, multiple uncomfortable blisters had begun to arise angrily as the thick material of her shoes chafed against Laurien's heels, though she tried her best to ignore them.

As they neared the mouth of an alleyway leading out into a reasonably still street, Erik tugged on her arm, prompting her to halt in her tracks. "Might we be able to take a moment to rest." He gasped as exerted breaths tore themselves from his lungs, the effects of his injury starting to noticeably wear on him. "My body is not as it once was."

"Yeah, take your time." She muttered, releasing his hand to allow him to slide down a nearby wall. She let out a tight exhale of air as she noticed that the previously faint buzzing in her head had grown gradually into a roar as they had run, greatly diminishing the enjoyment of the delicious pulsations of blood coursing through her body at the activity.

Laurien couldn't help but take note to how heavy Erik's breaths were as his chest heaved mightily underneath his coat or the way that his Adam's apple bobbed as he struggled to swallow. She looked away, steadying herself by placing both of her hands against the frozen surface of the adjacent wall as she tried to regain her bearings. Flashes of red painted the underside of her eyelids as she shut her eyes tightly, straining her ears to listen to the sound of the cold Parisian air filling her lungs instead of the remnants of the gunshot ringing in her head.

"You all right?" Erik asked, startling her once again.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She spluttered, daring to open her eyes again and glance down at the awaiting street down the alleyway. "Just- just wait here." She instructed before striding out onto the street.

The building immediately to her left towered over her like a monstrous beast with cracked grey skin and red paned windows for eyes as they glared across the street at a smaller cottage-like loft that stuck out in Laurien's mind as something she might see in a travel catalogue. It was apparent that both were apartment buildings, and of the two, she found herself trusting that they wouldn't get nearly enough strange looks entering the angry building than going into the pristine cottage.

She quickly ducked through the mouth of the monster and once inside, she made her way toward an assortment of mailboxes, all of which had varying amounts of letters and other paraphernalia inside them. Her eyes quickly flitted to the one that was near to overflowing with credit card bill payment requests and took careful note to the according apartment number, an idea coming to mind. She shoved the film roll, now slick with sweat from her sweaty hand, deep within the jungle of mail, before heading out to retrieve Erik.

"Let's go." She muttered, snaking an arm around his waist for stability as she lifted him to his feet and started to guide him inside.

"What are you doing?" He asked, his brows setting together in confusion.

"We're not going to make it back to the hotel without being seen at this rate, and we need to lay low somewhere for a while, until this whole debacle you've caused settles down for the night." She stated dryly, hoping that her anxiety didn't betray her by bleeding out into her voice. "Besides, you're going to catch pneumonia with these clothes on out there."

They climbed the stairs of the apartment building, periodically stopping on each floor for Laurien to check the numbers upon each door. It wasn't until the fourth floor that she was greeted with a matching string of three numbers, prompting her to flick her wrist at the doorknob and hear a satisfying click of the lock opening under her command.

"After you." She murmured to Erik as the door opened of its own accord.

The man before her only raised a questioning eyebrow in response before accepting her offer and taking the first few steps into the apartment. Laurien followed, closing the door behind her and barring it with the chain. They walked down the narrow hallway, the walls of which were barren, save for a few taped up instant photographs of various places, ranging from the palm trees of some tropical place, to Saint Basil's Cathedral in Russia. It was only when they reached the main sitting room, furnished with just a solitary lawn chair and a decrepit couch, that the walls exploded in a colossal collage of photos, each depicting the apparent journey of a young man across the world, accompanied by a variety of kind smiling faces.

To her left, Laurien found her lips curling into a small smile at what seemed to be an entire wall dedicated to pictures of food. Her stomach grumbled subtly, reminding her that she'd barely eaten on the plane, seeing as the very scent of the scrambled eggs that had been prepared nauseated her to the point of her dry heaving into the plane toilet. She felt terrible for doing it, but she quickly scanned the large room for the kitchen, and instead found a small fridge tucked away in the corner next to a disconnected sink filled with dirty dishes.

"What happens when the owner comes back?" Erik asked from his rather uncomfortable looking spot on the couch as he gingerly prodded the back of his head with his fingers.

"He won't."

Erik frowned. "How can you be so sure?"

"Mail box is full, one such letter states a bill for his Mastercard, which was last used for a ticket to China a week ago for a flight that left yesterday." She stated, scrunching up her nose at the sour smell emanating from a carton before putting it back on one of the shelves. "So, unless he changed his mind, and flew from Belarus to Paris and forgot to throw away the reeking milk in his fridge when he got home, he's certainly not going to come back to his apartment any time soon."

"You never cease to amaze me."

She raised her eyebrows at him, not quite sure if there was sarcasm in his voice, but she didn't bother to respond as she turned back to the contents of the fridge.

"I'm so sorry for what happened, Laurien. I didn't know that she-"

"Let's not talk about that right at this moment." She interrupted quickly, resting her tired head against the freezer door of the fridge with a small thump that effectively quieted the noise that had still been building in her mind. "Besides, it wasn't your fault."

"Laurien…"

"Stop, please." She asked slowly. "That's all for now about the matter, alright?"

You're not even going to get mad about-"

"Oh, don't even get me started." She warned, chuckling bitterly as she finally decided upon a decent looking takeout box filled with noodles and making toward a seat, only to stall and do a double take when she noticed an out of place item upon the table, immediately recognizing what it was from the many shiny pictures in various magazines. Microwave ovens were relatively hard to come by, a commodity even. How had a sea faring university student come upon such a treasure? "But I am not going to get into it right now." She continued distractedly, eyeing the machine carefully and touching it lightly as if it were a nuclear weapon. "I'm hungry, you're frozen, we can argue at a different time about how you fucked up."

He smirked at her, though when she didn't respond in kind, the smile slowly disappeared from his face. "You know they say those things suck the nutrients out of your food." He stated matter-of-factly as he leaned back in his seat, changing the subject in such an abrupt way that she hadn't thought possible.

She stared at him blankly for a moment, before defiantly continuing to place the noodles in the microwave to be reheated, keeping unwavering eye contact with him as she pressed in the amount of time.

"The food's going to explode of radiation poisoning if you put it in for twenty minutes." He commented dryly.

"Huh?" She turned and saw, to her great embarrassment, that she had in fact hit the zero one too many times. "Fucking hell." She muttered under her breath as she pressed the proper amount of time instead.

As the seconds ticked by, each inhale sent an unfortunate twinge in her lungs, her eyes steadily set upon the microwave oven as she flexed her hands, wanting to rid herself of this lingering uneasiness that she had forcefully bestowed upon herself. Her gaze finally drifted toward the wall of photos once more, scanning the multitudes of personal memories that were not hers to cherish. In the middle of the collage was a world map with a whole systematic assortment of pins, ranging from red, to yellow, to green. She guessed that green represented the places where he had a pleasant time, as she noticed that Spain, New Zealand, and Botswana were pinned with luminous green. In contrast, red must have been for terrible experiences, considering that the only red pins were stationed multiple times upon the state of Texas.

"Why did you come back for me?" Erik's voice broke through the silence, diverting Laurien's attention from the map for a long enough time for her to frown at him from where she stood before turning back.

"Hmm?" She asked calmly, though thoroughly annoyed that he kept interrupting her train of thought.

"You could have just left and met up with Charles again." He elaborated, his intense blue eyes piercing through the hard exterior of her shields. "With what I had done, I wouldn't have blamed you."

She raised an eyebrow as her fingers rubbed at her jawbone, thinking through her words carefully. "Is that what you would rather I'd have done?" She wondered, keeping her voice as light and innocent as possible, wanting to get a straight answer out of him for once.

"No." He made to say, but the blaring beep of the microwave countdown interrupted him, prompting her to tend to the steaming box of noodles as the scent of soy sauce filled the room. "So, why didn't you?" He pursued.

"Would you believe me if I said that I don't know?"

"No."

She couldn't help but smile to herself at his response as she grabbed a stray pair of chopstick from an open drawer and pushed it shut with her hip. "I don't know then."

And that was the truth, or at least what she hoped to convey, because in short, what she was feeling now was quite the opposite of what she thought she should feel in this moment. For goodness' sake, the man had just opened fire on a friend in front of a barrage of cameras, civilians, and high ranking officials, she should be furious, but for some reason, she was finding that she could just quell her anger at the moment.

Sighing, she stepped toward a nearby armchair, but was soon distracted when she saw the slight tremble of Erik's shoulders. Setting down her box of noodles, she moved to open the armoire beside the couch, quickly riffling through the mounds of clothes that the man had left behind to find something acceptable. "Here, go put these on." She said, tossing a pair of pants and a shirt into Erik's lap before she dove back into the drawer in search of a pair of socks.

"Won't he mind?" Erik wondered aloud, nodding his head toward the photos of the young man.

"I think he'll mind more if he comes back to find your dead body on his couch." Laurien countered, pursing her lips as she found yet another holey pair of worn out socks. "Lesser of two evils, your choice."

He stayed still for a moment before eventually shrugging off his coat and shirt, revealing the toned upper body that she remembered from a decade ago, marked with the same scars and scratches that he'd collected over the tortured years of his life. Her hand unconsciously fell to grip her stomach as it flipped uncomfortably, reminding her of the pain that scars left upon the mind, even years later, before she turned back to the armoire and finally found an appropriate pair and tossed that to him as well.

"You should also probably take a shower, seeing as I doubt that fountain water was clean." She added quietly, the life seemingly drained out of her in the last few seconds.

Erik shifted uncomfortably in his seat, glancing around the room quickly before addressing her directly. "Um, before that, would you mind..?" He asked softly, lifting his fingers to the back of his head as an end to his question.

She nodded silently and searched around the apartment for a needle and thread, but when she went to open a drawer, she stopped abruptly as she saw the constant shaking of her hands against the handle. As a faint blue hue crept into her sight, Laurien clenched her hands together tightly, her breaths coming out in a shuddering mess as she tried to compose herself, but found that she was ultimately failing. In an effort to distract herself, she made to grab a glass that was on top of a highly decorated box and put it in the sink, but her fingers clumsily glanced off of it and sent the glass hurdling to the floor. It shattered into large jagged pieces that shot out in all directions, the sudden sound of which made Erik jump to his feet in alarm.

"Shit." She cursed, her frustration rising to a peak in her chest as she picked up the shards with her powers and let them tumble into the trash bin by the sink. "Sorry."

"Laurien." Erik's gentle voice met her ears, again interrupting the incessant swirl of thoughts, though this time, she was grateful for it.

"Yeah?"

"Are you all right?"

Laurien froze, seriously regretting saving his ass at this point from the amount of questions he was posing her that she didn't want to answer. "I told you earlier that I was."

"Doesn't mean that it was true then, or now for that matter."

"Touché." She said, turning around and taking a deep breath as she knew that he was right. "It's just- um." Laurien tried, but her voice wavered, prompting her to cough and try again. "My hands." She said, lifting them up in a quick motion before changing her mind and self-consciously hiding them in her coat pockets.

He frowned, the slight wrinkles above his eyebrow becoming more defined as he did so. "What's wrong with them?"

Laurien made an attempt to smile, but the muscles in her face just didn't seem up to it as the weight of everything seemed to collapse upon her once more. "Shaky." She managed out, wincing as her voice instantly sounded like the aforementioned word.

His eyes softened and he raised an open hand toward her, beckoning for her to come forward. "Here, let me see."

Laurien tentatively stepped forward and allowed his hands to envelop hers, the warmth seeping through her skin as a sudden calm overtook her. His thumbs rubbed smoothly against the ridges of her knuckles, the skin over which had been split and bleeding profusely the first time he'd held her hands in such a way. Her mind wandered to the distant memory in the forest, and she found it strange that it had been cold then too, even though it had only been the start of September at the time.

He bowed down his head, effectively attaining her attention as her gaze flicked up to meet him. "Of all the things I missed about you during those ten long years, the one I missed most was your eyes." He murmured, his pupils dilating slightly as her vision flashed a soft shade of violet. "Especially when they do that."

She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks as he placed her hands against his bare chest so she could feel the faint palpitations of his heart beating a steadily racing rhythm on his ribcage. "I'm so sorry, Laurien." He whispered in a quiet, yet firm voice, as his eyes glistened wetly. "For all I have done, I am sorry. My actions took me away from you, and that, I will always regret."

She bit her lip to stop it from quivering underneath the pressure of the flood of emotions that streamed between them, feeling as if her lungs had frozen up within her at the same moment that her heart was lit ablaze. She couldn't remember ever experiencing such a sensation in her lifetime, though as Laurien stared up into Erik's awaiting eyes, the two blue oceans filled to the brim with anticipation and worry, a tiny twinkle sparked something that she recognized and thought she'd long since buried a decade ago.

He leaned down further, slowly at first, his eyes flitting down to her mouth as if asking for permission and with a slight tilt of her chin, she allowed his lips to capture hers. His mouth moved smoothly against hers, softly and gently bringing her back to simpler times back in the kitchen of the mansion, when there wasn't any global threat of annihilation or an apocalyptic future at stake. It was just a group of misfit kids and their two young mentors guiding the way, playing silly games that they'd carried on from the summer camps they'd frequented as children.

Oh, how she wished they could return to that time.

 **This was a difficult chapter to write, but it also is the longest to date. I apologize again for the long wait, it has been actually exactly a month since I last posted a chapter... Anyways, I saw Star Trek: Beyond... twice, Suicide Squad by accident (It was disappointing, but not as bad as Batman vs Superman, worst part was Jared Leto's Joker, in my mind, no one can replace Heath Ledger, and you can be a good actor without being a dick to your cast mates.)**

 **Has anyone seen Short Term 12? Very underrated movie. I also saw The Fundamentals of Caring, the boy in the movie reminded me so much of Charles. I watched the first season of Orphan Black, if anyone is looking for someone to obsess over Delphine/Cosima, I'm your girl.**

 **On my vacation time, I had a 'Michael Fassbender Reading List', so I read The Snowman, by Jø Nesbø, which was amazing, but a little bit corny as far as crime novels go. And then I read The Light Between Oceans, and I honestly want to weep every time I think about it or am remotely reminded of it. Please read it.**

 **Thank you again for your patience and love, the 1 year anniversary of this story is coming up in a few days, and I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me this long. I love you all... (Frank reference) Hope you all enjoyed, please review!**


	37. Chapter 37

**Over three months since the last chapter update... Shit.**

 **My sincerest apologies. Here's Chapter 37. Enjoy!**

After stitching himself up and changing into the borrowed, yet dry, clothes, Erik had fallen asleep on the couch as soon as his head hit the moth-eaten pillow, allowing Laurien to attempt to regain her bearings without interruption. She glanced tiredly around the room before her eyes rested upon the comfortingly steady rise and fall of Erik's chest, sinking down into the nearest armchair. Before she could settle down, a rumbling snore softly erupted from Erik's general vicinity, and Laurien had to stifle the urge to roll her eyes as she sighed. She padded over to the cramped bathroom and made an effort to shut the door as quietly as she could behind her, hoping that the isolation might bring about some sense of calm.

Unfortunately, the bathroom did nothing to ease her anxiety, seeing as the light above her head swayed slightly and cast an eerie yellow glow about the room that could be better described as a closet with a misplaced toilet. All the same, Laurien situated herself upon the closed lid of the toilet and shut her eyes, focusing on her breaths until they gradually slowed.

Forty-eight hours ago, she'd been in her own home, minding her own business, and now she was in a different country, dealing with overly complicated emotions for a concussed fugitive sleeping on the couch in the other room, as the police and some corrupt corporation searched for them. A chuckle escaped her lips at the asininities of the situation as she rubbed her face tiredly before cursing under her breath.

The whole thing was quite ridiculous, all the different elements that spurred on the events of the past two days. So-called time travel plots, botched assassination attempts and long lost family members turning up out of nowhere, it all seemed more like components of a bad conspiracy theory than actual reality if she was to be completely honest. Maybe that was it, and Logan was just a tough-looking kook with a penchant for LSD who had created a story plausible enough to convince a desperate Charles into thinking everything was somehow fixable.

Laurien quickly shook her head, dismissing the idea, because if Logan was just making it up, how would he have known that Raven would be at the embassy at that very moment? Though now that she thought of it, the drugs would explain why he had gone all bat shit crazy earlier. Though beyond strange, she was admittedly thankful for his freak out, considering it incapacitated Charles long enough for her to leave. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she didn't think that she could handle being in that room for another moment.

She didn't know if it was because of some lingering resentment towards Charles or because of… Laurien squeezed her eyes tightly shut at the very thought of the other possibility, her repressed emotions finally catching up with her as an uncomfortable heat pricked at her skin.

Oh, how many people they'd lost over the years.

Laurien felt the sudden urge to hit something as all of their faces came to mind, to rip something to shreds, or to throw an object against the wall and watch it shatter satisfyingly into a million razor sharp pieces that she could walk over and not think twice about. She wanted to hurt, to feel the physical version of the pain that plagued her both mentally and emotionally in that moment. Though instead, an overwhelming tide of hot tears rose and spilled from her eyes, as a shuddering breath released itself tumultuously from behind her lips.

She bent over double as convulsions wracked her entire body, holding a trembling hand to her mouth as she willed herself to be quiet so as to not wake and alert Erik. She stayed in that position for what felt like an eternity until the sobs slowly subsided into small hiccups and spasms, before she allowed herself to sit up properly and take a few hitching breaths in an effort to calm herself.

She opened her wet eyes tentatively, and flinched in fear when she found a puddle of dark red liquid lapping at her shoes and Sera's limp remains only a few feet away from her. She shut her eyes tightly again, nails digging deep into her cheeks as the gunshot echoed loudly in her ears. "It's not real. It's not real." Laurien repeated in a hoarse whisper to herself, though it couldn't have been further from the truth. What she had learned over her lifetime was that nightmares were always real.

Laurien dared to glance again, only to find that the body was gone, yet the puddle of blood remained. On unreliable legs, she lifted herself off the lid of the toilet and planted herself in front of the rusted mirror. A tear stained face greeted her with blood streaming down from its nose, staining its mouth before dripping from its chin. Relief washed over her, though Laurien's chest convulsed violently as she realized that she'd been holding her breath and desperately gasped for air.

She stood there silently, observing the bloody ghost that stared right back at her as they judged one another for their shared weaknesses and curse. Laurien found herself becoming envious of the ghost, because it could just leave this unjust world without a single care, while she still had difficulties to take care of here.

Guilt flashed through her almost immediately as the thought came to mind, and the mirror suddenly cracked down the middle. Laurien frowned, but simply turned on the tap and splashed her face with icy water, trying to snap herself out of whatever had possessed her. She scrubbed off the blood and snot that had since dried on her skin before rubbing her eyes vigorously in an effort to rid them of the red stains of tears and smudged mascara.

She glanced back up at the mirror, and was relieved to only see a familiar and weathered woman in its reflection. She looked like her mother more than ever now, not with the face she had in the photos before the war, but how Laurien remembered her being afterward, tired and sad, yet fiercely determined, and it comforted her greatly to know the same courage pulsed through her own veins.

She wanted to go home. But then the thought struck her that she hadn't a clue where home was. If she was to be completely honest, she'd felt the same way about the house in Ottawa as she did the apartment she was standing in at that very moment. It was strange and painful, like she was reliving the days after Roosje and Bastijn's deaths when she'd been living in random flats for a few days at a time before moving on to the next city in search of Dan. Nothing familiar. Nothing comforting. Just empty space.

Laurien hadn't dared to set up any photographs, or even unpack her bags for the three years that she'd stayed in that house, that way it would be much easier to just bolt, as she had done two days ago, if the armed men ever came back again. Frankly, the only benefit of this sick adventure was that it gave her an excuse to get out of the house and not ever come back again.

Laurien hadn't a clue what she was doing here. For what possible reason could the so called 'future' Charles and Erik have to bring her back into this colossal mess? Her mind was left guessing as just then, a sliver of fear buried its way into her mind as she stood rigidly in the bathroom, though she quickly realized that it was curiously not her own. Panicked, Laurien quickly opened the door, only to find that the living room was as she had left it, with Erik still asleep on the couch. Frowning as she neared him tentatively, she noticed that his handsome features had screwed up in pain, as a slight whimper escaped his lips. Laurien lowered herself down to sit on the ground next to the couch, slowly reaching out with a gentle hand to stroke the matted hair away from his forehead as the other worked to slip itself into the grip of the tight fist he'd made. The moment her skin made contact with his, Laurien felt Erik's intense fear flood through her like a tsunami wave, but forced herself to keep holding on, as his face gradually relaxed with her rhythmic touch.

After a few minutes, his eyes fluttered open and slowly focused in on her. A ghost of a smile appeared on his lips as his mood brightened slightly. "Hi." He whispered groggily.

"Hi." Laurien responded gently. "Sorry, I woke you, but they say that I should do so every couple of hours."

"No worries." He said, as he adjusted his head's position on the pillow before he winced in discomfort. "Ah, I think I botched it."

Laurien frowned. "Botched what?"

"The stitches. I would've felt better if you'd done them."

Laurien raised an eyebrow as she focused on the soft movements of her thumb against the back of his scarred hand, disgruntled that they were back on this subject again. "You're probably very experienced." She assumed. "How many times did you need to stitch up a wound during your time chasing after Shaw?"

Erik's eyes darkened slightly at the mention of the man's name. "Too many times." He murmured, before swallowing with difficulty as if a bitter taste was on his tongue.

Laurien recognized the tortured undertone to his words, but continued on with her point all the same. "See, you're perfectly capable on your own."

"But what if I don't want to be on my own?" He admitted, straining as he moved to sit up before Laurien placed a hand on his shoulder and kept him still, her eyes shut tight.

"Why do I feel like we are going in circles every time we talk?" Laurien inquired carefully.

"Well, I suppose I am very persistent." He decided, his tone too light for Laurien's own preference.

"Infuriatingly so." She added, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

"Though on the other hand, no offense, but you're quite an indecisive individual." Erik stated, his suggestion causing Laurien's defenses to raise even further in reflex, even though she knew that there was some truth in his words. "You seem to be having an endless debate in your head, where you're constantly changing your mind on your stance on certain issues."

Laurien couldn't help but let out a small breath of humorless laughter. "I guess I'd make a splendid politician."

"Laurien."

"Hmm?"

"One of those issues is where we stand, you and I." He said, his voice suddenly serious. "I need to know if there is a future for us."

The hand on Erik's shoulder slowly slipping away, as she strategically detached herself from his emotions. "With your homicidal campaign, it's a wonder I'm even indecisive about you at all."

"Please, just answer the question." He sighed. "I only did what I did to keep you safe."

"I know, and I want the same for you, so you need to stop." Laurien urged, shaking her head as she felt a certain determination overcome her. "I can't lose anyone else, Erik, and it's killing me to see you dance on that edge like it's nothing."

"I can't let go of what they've done to all of us." Erik stated, pausing for a moment as if he weren't sure whether he should continue. "What they've done to you."

Laurien's stomach seemed to plummet suddenly. "H-How…?"

"I could hear everything being said in that car from the trunk. I know that it was Trask that sent those men into Westchester and did that to you." He lifted his hand to her temple and his fingertips gently grazed the scar that marred the otherwise unblemished skin, before she jerked back, grey eyes wide in shock. "They need to pay for the damage they've caused."

A nightmare seemed to be manifesting in front of her. "Erik, You can't."

"This is something I have to do."

"You know what? On second thought, we probably shouldn't have this conversation right now," She spat. "Not when you're so obviously concussed."

"Laurien." He repeated, moving to draw her in close.

She recoiled out of reach. "What?"

"I love you." He declared, almost pleadingly.

Laurien stared searchingly into his blue eyes, her heart beating against her ribcage at an unbearable rate as disappointment twisted in her stomach. "Yeah, you're most definitely concussed." She deduced quickly before backing away sharply and gathering her stuff.

Erik practically jumped up from the couch in his haste, almost tumbling over in a heap as the sudden movement wreaked havoc with his equilibrium. "Laurien, please just listen to me."

She ignored him and reached for her heavy tweed coat. "We should get going soon, it will be dark enough to hopefully travel unnoticed."

"I can't go back to the hotel, back to Charles."

She sighed as she wrapped the grey wool scarf snuggly around her neck. "Then I'll go alone, but don't expect me to put in a good word about you to him."

Erik took a few tentative steps toward her until they were close enough for Laurien to see the last stubborn remnants of bruising on his jawline in intense detail. "Please stay."

"I can't stay by your side as you continue down this path." Laurien stated, her eyes unflinchingly holding Erik's gaze. "So I will stand across from you, ready to bar your way at any turn if I have to."

She pulled him down to her and kissed him deeply on the mouth, revelling in the shocks of bliss that erupted through her entire body at the battle of their conflicting emotions.

"This isn't goodbye, Erik." She murmured against his lips. "Not by a longshot."

 **I don't know what I'm doing anymore. Maybe it's just because of the long hiatus or whatever, but I'm having major difficulties. Help!**

 **In other news, I hope that you are all well. Anyone from the US, I hope you are getting by okay in this difficult time. I was most certainly not pleased with how the election turned out, and I send my love to all those who are feeling lost and disappointed.**

 **Nothing really interesting in my world at the moment, just excited for Christmas. Quit my job. Needed to focus on school and all the other crap I have going on. Bought myself some LEGO. Wrote a script for school, performances were yesterday and involved donuts and a severed hand. I'm tired.**

 **Thank you all for sticking around, I love you all so much. Hope you all enjoyed, please review!**


	38. Chapter 38

_**Happy Birthday Jazu10501! :)**_

 **Hiya, hope you're all having an amazing day! I have a poll up for who you think Laurien should end up with because honestly, I am very much undecided upon the matter. Check out my profile for the poll. Unfortunately, I really had issues with this chapter. Enjoy!**

Laurien hadn't quite realized how far she still was from the hotel, and without any signs of empty cabs, the journey ended up being over an hour's walk in the middle of the cold winter's night. Though she didn't exactly mind, considering the amount of things she had to mull over in her head.

She'd done the right thing, she supposed, leaving Erik to sort himself out as she did the same for herself, but a sliver of doubt still ended up burrowing its way into her mind. If history was to be a reliable reference, he shouldn't be left to his own devises as revenge infected his mind with reckless abandon.

He hadn't changed in their ten years apart, though somehow it was understandable, considering how could one be expected to grow if they were kept within their own head for that exceedingly cruel amount of time without another soul to talk to and learn from? Laurien found herself recognizing the process and stopped dead in her tracks, wanting to kick herself as it all made sense.

Shivering slightly, Laurien had wrapped her arms tightly around herself as she continued walking briskly in the direction of the hotel, constantly reliving her earlier regret of not wearing more layers as the slight wind picked up and tormented her flushed face.

Maybe she'd been too harsh on Erik, not taking in all the different components that might fuel his behaviour, the most important of which being his past. Thirty years ago, a man with dangerous authority and power had turned his whole world upside down, ripped away his family, heritage, religion, and purpose, all the while scarring him for life. There wasn't even a question as to why he wouldn't feel the need to retaliate with vengeance and pain. Laurien had known this from the start, yet had never quite understood.

Laurien shook her head, muttering obscenities under her breath as she came into view of the hotel. Erik was right, she begrudgingly admitted to herself, she was utterly incapable of making up a damned decision, always jumping back and forth between two or more possibilities. Maybe the best thing to do was to take herself out of the equation, just let Charles run his course without her interference as she dealt with Erik in her own way. As reluctant as she was to leave the others without a word of explanation, this seemed to be the most peaceful of options for her conflicted mind at that moment.

Laurien stopped at the entrance of the hotel, pursing her lips in frustration as thoughts moved in and out of the forefront of her attention. Fuck, she groaned internally, she was right back again to where she'd started mentally at the start of her trek, and now in dire need of a warm and pungent drink.

A wave of much needed warmth met her as she passed through the revolving doors and into the lobby, seeping slowly into her body as she quickly made her way over to an arriving elevator and slipped in after the last person had left. A muffled tune filled the empty space as she waited patiently for the bell to sound before the doors opened to reveal the dark red carpeting of the fifth floor.

Laurien stepped out and carefully made her way down the hallway, making sure as to not make any noise by Charles' room that may alert him to her presence.

She riffled through her disorderly bag, fingers brushing against the stolen roll of film that she'd retrieved from the mailbox when she'd left, before making contact with the key to the hotel room. She quickly opened the door and was startled to find that the light was on, illuminating the surroundings enough to reveal Charles, Logan and Hank seated in various places around the room, their heads turning toward her at the sound of the door opening.

Laurien fought against the urge to turn on her heel and run, as her initial plan was foiled by their mere presence, and instead walked slowly into the room, closing the door none too gently behind her, as irritation nipped at her nerves.

"Where have you been?" Charles asked as he rose from his seat at the foot of the bed, walking toward her like a disapproving parent who had caught their child returning after curfew.

Laurien shook her head, not making eye contact as she moved past him and toward her bags. "I'm just here for my stuff, Charles."

"So you're joining him now, are you?" Charles assumed.

"What?" Laurien asked, furrowing her brow. "No, I'm going home."

A confused frown twisted his mouth. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I am taking myself out of this nonsensical storyline you all seem to be weaving as you go." She explained, stuffing her red flannel shirt into her bag before zipping it shut in finality. "I've had enough."

"But you can't. We need you." He implored, grabbing on tightly to the strap of the bag. "The future needs you."

"Bullshit." She growled, staring daggers at him as she snatched the bag back. "The future is fucked and we can't possibly do anything to change it."

"So you would just turn your back on it all?"

"Isn't that exactly what you did, Charles?" She countered, observing him as self-doubt crept into his argument. "You're really not one to be talking to me so insolently about this."

"Look, we'll explain everything, just-"

She shook her head. "No, I'm going."

"Laurien, don't leave me again." Charles pleaded, grabbing her arm.

"Again?" She questioned dangerously, eyes flashing a deep crimson as she ripped her arm from his grip. "I didn't leave because I wanted to, you shut me out and forced me to leave after your selfishness cost us our child."

Laurien halted abruptly as she noticed the sudden change of Charles' expression as a consequence of her extreme words. He lowered his gaze, unable to hold hers any longer as shame and guilt roared off of him and mingled with her own, a rattling breath escaping Laurien's lips as all the blood seemed to drain from her face with the realization of her dire mistake.

"I- I didn't…" She tried, her voice suddenly hoarse, as she felt like she'd just ripped his heart out and torn it to shreds. "I'm sorry, Charles. I didn't mean that."

The door to the bathroom suddenly creaked open, the noise of which causing Laurien to look up, only feel her blood run cold through her veins when she saw who was standing in the doorway.

She stared, the bag in her hand slowly slipping from her fingers and falling to the floor with a thump. Sera stood before her with a towel clasped tightly her hands, her mismatched eyes slightly glazed over as they looked upon Laurien with little interest.

"Did I interrupt something?" She asked, the nonchalance in her voice piercing Laurien's chest as all the air seemed to escape from her lungs.

Everyone in the room seemed to be waiting with bated breath for Laurien's reaction as she tried her best to process the situation before her, but ultimately found herself failing under the pressure of the past few days and the recent trauma that still tormented her aching head.

"Is- Is this some kind of fucking joke?" Laurien stammered, glancing over at Charles as a wave of tears quickly rose to the surface.

Charles' eyes grew wide as a panicked realization dawned on his face. "Laurien, I promise you, it's not."

But Laurien wasn't listening. "Is that Raven?" Her hands shook violently as she raised one of them to her mouth, her eyes flickering rapidly between her former fiancé and the figure who assumed her family member she'd thought dead. "Charles, you're not that cruel."

"No, I would never-" Charles began, taking a step toward her, though only causing her to move away from him.

"Is it Raven?" She repeated more forcefully, the tears spilling over as her legs gave out beneath her, causing her to sink to her knees. "Tell me, Charles!"

Charles lowered himself to her level, holding her face gently between his hands as he tried to get across to her. "No. Laurien, please, it's Sera."

"How?" She demanded.

Logan responded. "She can regenerate, like I can."

The new piece of information nipped at Laurien's curiosity, but combined with her uneven emotions and incredible headache, words didn't seem to be enough. Suddenly, a corkscrew flew across the room and stuck into Sera's chest, eliciting little reaction as it began to spin, burrowing itself deeper into her skin.

"Laurien!" Charles' voice cried out, effectively jarring her concentration and bringing her back out of the red void. The corkscrew ceased its movement, then a low chuckle rose from Sera's throat as she lifted her hand and ripped it out with little more than a wince. She examined the corkscrew as the wound in her chest slowly stitched itself up, miraculously not showing any hint of trauma whatsoever.

"You hurt me, I hurt you, right?" She snarled, baring her teeth at Laurien as she released the psychological blow.

Laurien suddenly lunged at the other woman, not even managing to make to her feet before she was grabbed by Charles and held back in his embrace.

"I'll handle this, Chuck." Logan grunted, bodily hauling Sera into the washroom before shutting the door behind them.

Laurien frowned at the sound of water gushing out of the bathtub faucet, only to be outdone by a large bang of something hitting the porcelain tub.

All the anger seemed to dissipate for the moment as she felt Charles' arms loosen around her, as if to let her go, but Laurien buried her head into his chest and tightened her grip on him, allowing the sound of his heartbeat to calm her. They sat wordlessly on the carpet, the only sound to meet their ears was that of running water until it stopped abruptly, then leaving them in utter silence.

"How about you sit down and we'll explain everything." Charles murmured softly into her hair, rubbing soothing circles upon her back, just like he would when a particularly bad nightmare occurred back at the mansion.

Laurien nodded into his chest, before reluctantly disentangling herself from him and sitting down on the edge of the mattress, raising a tentative hand to her head as it throbbed.

A moment later, the door to the washroom opened once more to reveal Logan half carrying, half dragging, a thoroughly drenched Sera back into the room.

"What the hell did you do? Drown her?" Hank asked from where he stood by the window, speaking for the first time since Laurien had entered the room.

"Well, strictly speaking, yes." Logan shrugged after he'd placed Sera down on a nearby armchair. "Quick trick I learned during the war when she'd get high before a mission. Flushes the toxins out of her system quick."

Logan must have seen the confused look on all of their faces, considering he then reached into Sera's soaked jacket pocket and withdrew a small bag filled with white powder. "Classic cocaine cure."

Sera retched, causing what seemed to be a mouthful of water to spill over her chin. "Also a less than admirable way to get out his frustrations." She croaked bitterly before looking up at him. "Never thought you'd do that to me again."

"Well, I didn't know you were still in this mess." Logan said, putting his hand on her shoulder and squeezing gently, an act of affection that Laurien had never seen him use with Sera before. "What's going on, Sera?"

"Please, not now." She asked softly, looking as though she might fall to pieces at a moment's notice.

Laurien stared uncertainly at Sera, wondering if this still was the very same woman that had been giving out insults and sarcasm like they were candy for the past couple of days. Her whole demeanor had changed drastically, from the way that she held herself, looking utterly defeated and small, though her eyes now held a bright vibrancy that they had not previously possessed.

"You hurt me, I hurt you." Sera repeated, though this time not in animosity, drawing Laurien from her train of thought. "Dan taught you that saying, right?"

Laurien slowly nodded without a word.

"Guys, could you please give us a moment?" Sera suddenly asked, purposely avoiding eye contact with any of them except Laurien.

Charles looked ready to protest, but Hank crossed the room and gently took his arm before escorting him out. Logan, on the other hand, stayed put in his place beside Sera, as if he were her dutiful bodyguard.

Sera waited for the hotel room door to shut completely before continuing. "Did he ever tell you who taught him that?"

Laurien cleared her throat, her voice still raspy and hoarse around the edges. "Did you teach him how to murder those closest to him as well?" She asked, trying to calm herself as she recognized the evident anger returning to her words.

"Maybe." Sera admitted miserably as she stared down at the carpet. "Korea was a different time. We did what we had to survive."

"You were with him?" Laurien asked, wet eyes widening at the confession. "Why didn't you send him back?"

The other woman simply shrugged. "I don't know. My own guilt? My empathy toward him?" She shook her head, eyes darkening visibly. "I could tell he was there for the same reasons I was."

She paused for a few moments, winding the length of shoe lace around her fingers absentmindedly as she seemingly contemplated something before continuing. "The night of the raid, the night that Dad… that your Opa died, it was at my insistence that Dan be able to join us after we found him trailing along." She let out a slight chuckle as she smiled sadly, lost in the memory. "I told him that we should be breeding future resistance fighters."

Sera coughed again, a small dribble of water escaping her lips. "Your Opa said that it was alright, but that Dan was my responsibility, whatever happened to him was in my hands."

A sudden element of the story dawned on Laurien. "Were you the woman? The one with the story?"

Sera's smile grew wider, and Laurien had to admit, it was an attractive smile, the same one from the picture in the photo album. "That fucking rabbit story. I was just trying to improvise to keep him busy as the others talked."

Sera stalled again, for a long enough time that Logan nudged her arm to remind her to keep going. "Well, he saw what he saw, and there was no reversing it. The only thing I could do was get him home to your parents and rid the building of every trace that could have possibly hinted that we were ever there." She said, her face growing vacant. "I ended up burning the whole building down."

She snapped back to reality and gazed unblinkingly at Laurien's hard face. "There wasn't much to say after that. I left for Amsterdam, to get myself in with the big leagues of the resistance, and then when the Allies made their way into the Netherlands, I met Logan. And with the soldiers, came the drugs, and well… they don't really mix well with my brain's chemical makeup."

"I'm so sorry, Laurien. For Dan, Bastijn and Roosje. It's all my fault. You see; I'm the catalyst of all this shit." Sera babbled, the words spilling out of her mouth like a growing leak from a dike. "I have to live with what I've done, I have no choice in the matter, and I guess that I thought the drugs would take the edge off."

"Is there any way for you to get clean?"

"It's… not that simple. I've tried many times, but now, after almost thirty years of on and off usage, I don't think I can bare that process."

"You still had no right to do what you did at the Embassy." Laurien reminded her, though more in despair than in anger. "For hours, I thought that my last living relative had killed herself right in front of me."

"I know." Sera admitted, shaking her head. "I can't take back anything that I've done, no matter how much I'd like to, and I know now I really should have waited a little longer before entering your life."

A long stretch of silence passed between the two of them, before Sera got to her feet. "I should go." Sera said, heading for the door. "I believe I've done enough damage for one day."

As if something had suddenly possessed her, Laurien grabbed Sera's hand, stopping her in her tracks. "Do come back and find me some day. When you're certain that you're ready."

Laurien didn't know if it was just a trick of the light, or if Sera had actually become misty eyed, as a ghost of a smile tugged at her lips. "Thank you." She whispered, as Laurien gave her hand a small squeeze before allowing her to slip through her fingers.

When Sera reached the door, her hand hesitated upon the handle before she turned around to face Laurien. "I know I'm not one to be giving advice, but… maybe give Charles a little slack." She suggested softly. "He may be a little bit difficult, but he just thought that he was doing the right thing. That, and he loves you very much."

Laurien sat on the bed, feeling exhausted as she mulled over the information in her mind before nodding solemnly and watched Sera slip out of view.

"She's one hell of a woman, huh?" Logan murmured to her left as he sank down into the armchair Sera had previously occupied, and Laurien found herself agreeing with him.

 **So... Sera's gone for the time being, and I'm actually quite glad. She's a roller coaster, and not one of the good ones, like Space Mountain, or the Matterhorn, she's the rickety old wooden roller coaster that makes your back hurt for hours afterwards and sorely regret ever considering going on it. Well, at least we know why she was acting like a bitch for the past couple of chapters. Drugs can do weird things to a person, especially if that person is a mutant with different chemical makeup. Don't worry, Laurien will soon be on the other side of her bad couple of days and be back to her usual bad ass self. Can't really blame someone for reacting the way she has been when they're dumped in that ridiculous scenario. Sometimes people just need a bit of time.**

 **Anywho, what's up? Nothing much going on here, just excited for Christmas. Saw Rogue One yesterday, I loved Cassian Andor and Chirrut Imwe. I am one with the Force, the Force is with me. I am one with the Force, the Force is with me. I am one with the Force, the Force is with me.**

 **For anyone in Germany or Turkey, we love you so much and our love and thoughts are with you in this difficult time.**

 **Thank you all for all the support, hope you all enjoyed, and please review! (It makes me very happy to hear from you all.) Happy Holidays everyone, and a Happy New Year!  
**


	39. Chapter 39

**Hello, shorter chapter today. Hope you all had a lovely start to the new year, and I hope you all enjoy!**

The journey back to New York was uneventful, with barely any worthy interactions to take note of, other than the blatant flirting attempts made toward Hank by the pretty hotel receptionist on their way out. Hank had of course been completely oblivious, and was practically scandalized when Logan pointed it out to him, clapping him hard on the shoulder before steering him out the door to where Charles was retrieving the car.

This elicited a small smile from Laurien as she watched the whole thing happen from behind the safety of her aviators. She'd always wondered if Hank would ever settle down with anyone, or if he would continue to be the hermit whose true loves were science and math. The hopes of Hank's blossoming relationship with Raven all those years ago seemed like an impossibility at this point, though of course, what was to stop a love from rekindling itself after a decade? Laurien frowned to herself at this thought before pushing it to the back of her mind and carrying on.

Sera was nowhere to be seen that morning, leaving Laurien to assume that she was making good on her promise, for the first day at least. She found herself wondering within what time frame the redhead might return, in a few months, a year, or perhaps even in another decade? Whatever it was, Laurien just hoped that it would be enough time for both of them to heal psychologically from their unfortunately chaotic family reunion.

As they took off from the runway, and witnessed the surreal view from above the city of Paris, Laurien couldn't help but wonder if Erik was somewhere in the streets below. And if he was, was he heading her advice that she'd left him in the apartment and leaving things alone?

Charles hadn't said a word about the night before, and for that, Laurien was thankful. Her conduct had been appalling, at least in her mind, and the entire event seemed to be contorting itself into some sort of virus, with its insatiable habit of bringing her guilt ridden thoughts to the surface. The memory of the pained expression on Charles' face when she'd blamed him was something Laurien wasn't sure if she could ever forgive herself for causing, and it haunted her the entire plane trip back.

They finally touched down around noon, New York time, and were greeted by the welcome presence of a dusty blue 1950s Plymouth sitting within the confines of the private garage neighboring the runway. Laurien narrowed her eyes as she took in the sleek figure of the automobile, her mind suddenly coming to a decision as Charles reached for the driver's side door handle after unlocking it.

It refused to budge, causing Charles to frown and attempt to unlock it once more with the keys. The car frame groaned suddenly, causing Charles to jump out of the way, as it began to roll out from the garage, tires crunching against the gravel until it came to a stop, with Laurien in arm's length of the driver's side handle.

"I guess I'm driving." She said nonchalantly, opening the door with ease before glancing up at the others with an air of innocence.

A smirk was shared between Hank and Logan, as Charles' mouth twitched slightly in an upward motion before wordlessly tossing her the keys and making his way into the passenger seat.

* * *

As she stepped out of the car, Laurien surveyed the state of complete disarray that enveloped the mansion that was once her home, her eyes lingering momentarily on a pop of color from an orange brick that had stubbornly refused to be overtaken by the mass of greying vines. Overgrown hedges surrounded the roundabout driveway, where patches of grass grew tall through the gravel beneath Laurien's feet like cadavers' hands, tickling her bare ankles.

The small fountain situated in the middle of the roundabout stood solemnly, all the bright flowers that had once kept it company having long since perished. Its skin was chapped and cracked as a result of the exposure and neglect, allowing chunks of stone to be chipped off and moss to grow upon its face.

The loud slam of a car door brought Laurien back to the matter at hand, and Laurien followed the others up the steps to the front door of the mansion. As she advanced, she lowered her eyes to her feet, lacking the courage to even dare to look any longer at the result of the heartache the house had suffered.

It was almost as chilly inside as it was outside. She kept glancing around for a nearby open window to explain the cold, but found none. Laurien took no comfort from that fact, as she drew her scarf tighter around her neck.

The only warning Laurien had to what would happen next was a sudden sense of foreboding that crept into her bones, before Charles fell to his knees with a hoarse shout as his hand immediately shot to his spine.

"Charles!" Hank cried out, rushing forward to catch his friend's arm before he pitched forward.

"What happened?" Logan demanded, as Laurien darted to Charles, unleashing an expletive under her breath as she grabbed his other arm. She helped Hank drag him to the side and prop him up against the protruding decline of the wall. "Why can't he walk?" Logan questioned again.

"He needs his treatment." Hank explained hurriedly, bracing his hands upon Charles' biceps as the other man writhed weakly.

"Hank, I can hear them." Charles whimpered, fighting against Hank as he tried to bring his hands to cover his ears, his eyes screwed up in pain.

Hank nodded quickly, panic edging in his voice. "It's okay, I'll make it stop. I'll get it." He said, before dashing up the stairs and disappearing down the upper floor hallway, leaving Laurien and Logan alone with Charles.

Laurien frowned as sweat beaded on Charles' brow and brought her hand to his forehead. "Jesus, you're burning up." She muttered under her breath, only to be met by a groan.

"Hey, hey, pull yourself together." Logan's gruff voice commanded. "It's not over yet."

Charles' eyes snapped open to look at the other man, his fingers brushing his temple. "You don't believe that."

"Charles." Laurien scolded tersely, eyes flashing darkly as she tried to prevent Charles from banging his head against the column behind him.

Logan frowned. "How do you know?"

"As these go…" Charles explained shakily, pointing at his legs before lifting his hand to his head. "this comes back." His labored breaths then turned into a sob as he clutched his head. "They all come back."

"Charles, please. It's alright, just focus on me." Laurien said firmly, a certain familiarity setting into her mind as her hand slid to the back of Charles' neck like it had so many times before. She slowly placed her forehead against his, allowing a direct and clear connection. "Focus on my thoughts, okay?"

"I'm trying." He gritted out in pain, his body heat engulfing her immediately, the sweat on his brow mingling with the coolness of her own. "I'm trying. Oh, Laurien, please forgive me."

Pain flared throughout her body, causing her hands to suddenly grip him tighter in an effort to bring him back. "No. Don't think about it, please." She urged, old fears threatening to seep into her thoughts as she tried to clear them for Charles' sake. "Focus… Think of the beach in Fort Tilden, the salty ocean breeze against our faces, the rocks…"

"I see it." He whispered almost triumphantly, his demeanor suddenly calming bit by bit as the sound of the waves met Laurien's ears along with the cries of seagulls.

"There you go, darling." Laurien praised him, her thumb unconsciously massaging the base of his skull. His steadying breaths ghosted over her lips as she could practically taste the salt from the ocean.

A calm silence stretched between them, until something suddenly shifted, and the roar of the waves grew louder and louder to almost unbearable levels as the salt in Laurien's mouth grew thick and metallic, spilling over her lips as a sharp pain sparked in her abdomen. "I'm so sorry." Charles breathed, his jaw setting as he shook uncontrollably.

"No, Charles." Laurien gasped, trying to bring back the calm equilibrium they had prospered in only moments before, but panicking to the point that her free hand grasped out blindly until it connected with the thick leather of Logan's jacket and gripped him tightly. "Logan…" She gritted out with difficulty.

"Look, I'm… I'm still here. She's still out there." He said, his voice steady, putting on a deceivingly strong façade that hid an underlying layer of pure desperation. "But we need your help, Charles, but not like this." He extended a hand and gripped Charles' shoulder. "I need you. We can't find Raven, not without your powers."

Bit by bit, the pain and panic began to relinquish its agonizing hold on Laurien. Sighing quietly in relief, she turned her head minutely to glance up at Logan, her eyes exhaustedly searching his, sending a silent thanks. He nodded in response, and Laurien realized that there was something she hadn't previously seen in the man before her, something that surprised her.

Hank's voice erupted through the atrium as he rushed down the stairs. "I added a little extra cause you missed a dose." He announced hurriedly. Laurien opened her eyes and ice water seemed to immediately engulf her stomach as a syringe came into view, causing her to back away sharply, breaking the connection with Charles.

Charles gasped at the loss, tears in his vacant eyes, before they focused in on the syringe and its contents. Laurien could only watch in silent horror as she saw her former fiancé transform in front of her. With the swiftness of a seasoned addict, he quickly rolled up his sleeve and prepared to inject it into his skin, his tongue licking his lips like a predator savoring a kill.

"Charles." Logan grunted, and as if with a flick of a switch, Charles was back again. His eyes fluttered rapidly, as if trying to make sense of the choice before him. His gaze moved from Logan, to the syringe, and back again, before finally resting upon Laurien's stricken expression.

He didn't need to read her mind to know how she felt.

Charles blinked, and then slowly placed the syringe down next to him on the bench. He ran a hand over his haggard face, and paused, as tentative determination seeped into his eyes. "Hank, do me a favor. Would you help me to my study, please?"

A confused look overtook Hank's face for a moment before realization finally dawned on his features. "Alright." He said, moving forward and letting Charles throw an arm across his shoulders as Hank put his arm around his waist before lifting him up from his makeshift seat. Laurien and Logan followed them on the short journey it took to reach Charles' study, a place that Laurien hadn't set her eyes upon in almost three years.

It had changed as much as the rest of the house, if not more. Usually immaculately organized and cleaned, the disorderly and decrepit state of the room took Laurien by surprise, even more than the state of the entire mansion. Charles' refuge, his space of logic and intellectual comfort was a sorry sight to see. The cluttered room was unnaturally dark with the window shutters drawn tightly shut, the only light being cast in an eerie glow from a lamp with a silk scarf strewn overtop the shade. Laurien recognized it as being one of her own that she'd left behind. Of what she could see, there were books piled up all over the place, some of which were partially open with their pages being bent unnaturally at odd angles, causing Laurien to wince inwardly at their maltreatment.

Hank set Charles down gingerly upon one of the office chairs near the closet before gripping the handle. "Are you sure about this?" He asked in a tone leaving Laurien to wonder whether he was asking Charles or himself.

Charles shook his head, letting out a shuddering exhalation that he had seemingly been holding. "Absolutely not."

 **Watch Community on Netflix. It will change your life.**

 **Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed, and please review below!**


	40. Chapter 40

**Hello, long time, no see. I apologize for the delay, I was busy doing performances of my school's musical. I played a British nun, and it was very fun. (rhyme not intended) Had to do my best Maggie Smith from Downton Abbey. Anywho, Enjoy chapter 40!**

Having opted out of going into Cerebro, Laurien watched solemnly as the sliding doors of the elevator closed, enveloping the three men in its stainless steel case and bringing them into the depths of the mansion. As the hum of the hydraulics began to fade as it descended, squeaking slightly from disuse, Laurien stood in utter silence in the middle of the decrepit atrium. She suddenly turned on her heel and eyed the large staircase leading to the upper floors, before taking the first few brave steps back in time.

It had been years since she'd stepped foot on the premises, yet it seemed like only yesterday that she had nearly rolled her ankle from a misstep on the same staircase in her haste to get a book to Alex before he was shipped off to Vietnam. She'd given him Orwell's Animal Farm. A month later, she'd received a package containing the book and a request for another. She had then sent 1984, and after getting it back along with a good review, yet a plea for something more lighthearted, she shipped off Tolkien's The Hobbit. She had yet to be returned the book over three years later, and that more than worried her.

Laurien padded up the stairs, trailing her hand along the banister. The polished wood was smooth and satisfying against her skin until her fingers passed suddenly over sharp divots and she quickly withdrew her hand, as if it had burned her. She quickly glanced to the far side of the banister and felt a small shock burst through her when she recognized the telltale presence of bullet holes.

She took a deep breath and continued up the stairs, not realizing that she was holding her hand protectively against her chest.

The windows at the first landing of the staircase looked oddly frosted from the combination of dust on the interior and bird droppings on the exterior. Laurien opened one of them with difficulty, making it squeal in disgruntlement as the hinges turned to reveal the South lawn. A slight breeze caressed her face as she ducked her head out and took in the sights of a blissfully vast and overgrown lawn, from which she was, out of habit, half expecting a red furred pup to emerge.

Shasta was buried beneath the shade of the great oak tree on the mansion's grounds. The tree was rooted next to the man-made lake, and Laurien found herself squinting towards it, vaguely making out its grandiose outline in the distance. Charles had always mentioned how it was his favorite of the multitudes on the property, that he used to swing from the branches when he was little. That fact had stuck in Laurien's head when she'd specifically buried Shasta between the roots before leaving. She didn't know why, out of spite perhaps, the burning anger that she had used to fuel her through the pain of digging through the hard earth, toughened by the cold of winter.

She couldn't be sure of how long she had stood with her head out the window, but as her body began to falter as it felt the deep bite of the cold, she ducked back inside. She delicately latched the window shut and started up the next set of stairs as she rubbed the feeling back into her hands, when the lights of the atrium suddenly flickered.

Laurien paused halfway up the staircase, wondering if it was just a figment of her imagination, but she was proven wrong as a subtle hissing began to emanate from the bulbs of the chandelier as the atrium dimmed drastically. She stared curiously at the lights, wincing as the hiss grew louder, pulsating irregularly like a failing heartbeat until their glow suddenly brightened immensely, forcing Laurien to shield her eyes. A sharp series of pops assaulted her ears, as the lights shattered, dropping a shower of thin glass down upon the carpet below.

Recognizing the signs, Laurien turned on her heel and quickly descended the stairs. Her shoes crunched the shards of glass as she dashed across the atrium toward the elevator, though knowing better than to try taking it, she rushed over to a Charles' study and burst into it. Laurien made her way over to the bookcase directly behind his desk chair and pulled on a dusty copy of Hamlet, hearing the telltale click and release, as the bookcase swung out to reveal a dark hallway. She raised an arm and batted away the maze of cobwebs that had accumulated in throughout the underused path before it led her to a spiraling staircase.

Laurien kept one hand gripped tight on the railing at all times as she descended the dizzyingly long rabbit hole that the contractor had most surely not thought through correctly, until a blue hue gradually crept into view. She finally reached the bottom, though only to almost collide with Hank as he rushed through the doorway.

"Jesus, Hank! What happened?" She demanded, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.

Hank seemed as alarm as she was. "I don't know, it overwhelmed him." He explained hurriedly before moving past her and up the stairs.

"Where are you going?" She called up after him.

"To go check on the generator." And then he was gone.

Laurien took one last deep breath before she exited through the doorway and into the usually brightly lit hallway that led to Cerebro. She made her way down the hallway, all the time fearing that Charles had finally gone too far. She neared the opening of the Cerebro, though quickly slipped back and hid in a nearby nook when she heard Logan's gruff voice approaching from within the chamber.

"You're just a little rusty."

"You don't understand, it's not a question of being rusty. I can flip the switches, I can turn the knobs, but my power doesn't come from here, it comes from...here." Charles gritted out, the waves of despair so palpable, even just in his voice. "And it's broken. I feel like one of my students. Helpless. It was a mistake coming down here, it was a mistake freeing Erik and dragging Laurien back into this, this whole thing has been one bloody mistake!" He seemed close to tears. "I'm sorry, Logan, but they sent back the wrong man!"

"You're right. Actually, it was supposed to be you. But I was the only one who could physically make the trip." Logan confessed. "And, uh, I don't even know how long I've got here. But I do know that a long time ago-well, actually, a long time from now-I was your most helpless student. And you unlocked my mind. You showed me what I was, you showed me what I could be. I don't know how to do that for you, you're right, I don't! But I think I know someone who might. Look...into my mind."

Panic edged Charles' voice. "You saw what I just did to Cerebro! You don't want me inside your head!"

"There's no damage you can do that hasn't already been done, trust me."

There was a pause, allowing Laurien to take a shaky breath as she wondered if maybe she should find out a way to quietly leave. But before she could even take a step, agony pierced through her body like a lightning strike as Charles' waves of despair enveloped her, causing her to slide none too gracefully to the ground as she tried to control the pain and not cry out.

"You poor, poor man." Charles whimpered.

"Look past me." Logan urged.

"I don't want your suffering." Charles' voice gritted out from behind clenched teeth, before releasing a pained cry. "I don't want your future!"

Logan somehow remained calm despite the situation, as Laurien tried to latch onto his waves through the cracks of the tsunami. "Look past my future. Look for your future." A moment passed, as the bodily pain mercifully began to subside. "That's it." Laurien heard Logan say from what seemed to be a great distance, as she closed her eyes and put her head in her hands.

A dull headache was all that remained of the assault, prompting Laurien to pull her bottle of pills from her pocket and shake out two into her palm, beyond caring if they heard the rattle. Her hand trembled as she brought it up to her mouth and swallowed the pills dry. She waited, hearing Charles' heavy breaths slowly begin to calm into an even rhythm.

The hallway lights suddenly brightened to their usual level, causing Laurien to wince before making her way back to her feet as she heard footsteps approaching. She emerged from her hiding spot, only to see Logan crouching before Charles's wheelchair as the younger man held his fingers to Logan's temples. Hank came into view and gave Laurien a quick nod before they both turned their attention back to the connection transpiring between the men before them.

After a moment, Charles lowered his hands to grip the wheelchair handles. "Find what you're looking for?" Logan asked, his eyes focused only on Charles as the telepath gave him a small nod.

"The power's back on." Hank said, though it sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Yes." Charles took a deep breath, his gaze fluttering from Logan to Hank before he realized that Laurien was there. They locked eyes for a moment, before he turned his chair and entered Cerebro once more. "Yes, it is."

* * *

"Where is she?" Hank asked as they rode up the elevator after Charles located Raven through Cerebro.

"She's in an airport, boarding a plane." Charles explained, rubbing his temple as he warded off the aftereffects of the session.

"Do we know where to?" Laurien wondered, watching him carefully.

He seemed to disappear within his mind for a moment before responding as the ding of the elevator signalled their arrival. "Washington, D.C."

"Alright, there's something I need to show you." Hank declared, before leading them to a small room just off from Charles' study, filled with television screens that broadcasted a multitude of different images. One of them, Laurien noticed, was playing an episode of Star Trek. "This is the system I designed to record any news about Paris, over all three networks and PBS."

"All three? Wow." Logan said, his voice exhibiting an amount of sarcasm that Laurien couldn't quite understand in this context.

Hank seemed unaware. "Yeah, and PBS. Look what I found."

He pressed a button on one of the many remotes, which ramped up the volume of one of the televisions displaying a newswoman standing in front of the White House. "Tomorrow in front of the White House, the President will make his announcement. He'll be joined by Secretary of Defense Laird and has even sought the help of renowned scientist Bolivar Trask, he's special adviser to combat this mutant issue. The White House has asked…"

"She's going to be there, isn't she?" Laurien murmured to no one in particular as she leaned up against the wall.

 **"** Raven doesn't realize that if she kills Trask at an event like that with the whole world watching…"

Logan grunted. **"** Then I came a long way for nothing."

Hank continued on. **"** And there's more bad news. I saw the report, they found traces of her blood in Paris. For all we know, they already have her DNA, which is all they'd need…"

 **"** To create the Sentinels of the future." Logan said, sighing as he ran a hand over his face.

"Shit." Laurien muttered under her breath, as she slowly let her head fall up against the wall she was leaning on.

Hank didn't let them dwell in their despair for long before adding another aspect to it. **"** Now there's a theory in Quantum Physics that time is immutable. It's like a river, you can throw a pebble into it, create a ripple, but the current always corrects itself." He explained. "No matter what you do, the river just keeps flowing in the same direction."

"More Star Trek, Hank?" Laurien wondered, feeling utterly dead inside.

 **"** What are you trying to say?" A furrow-browed Logan demanded of Hank.

 **"** What I'm saying is, what if the war is inevitable? What if she's meant to kill Trask? What if this is just simply who she is?"

Laurien shook her head, disbelievingly. "It isn't, it can't be. That's not Raven."

 **"** Just because someone stumbles, loses their way, doesn't mean they're lost forever." Charles stated slowly, as if pulling it from something he had read from a book, years ago, and only now remembering. His words took Laurien by surprise. **"** No, I don't believe that theory, Hank. And I cannot believe that that is who she is." Charles turned his wheelchair toward the door. "Ready the plane, Hank, we're going to Washington."

"Not so fast." Laurien said as she quickly blocked the doorway with her body. "The presidential address isn't until tomorrow, and I believe a proper meal and rest are in store for us. I would hate for us to get this far, only for Hank to fall asleep at the wheel and send us all to our deaths." She gave Logan a quick side glance. "Well, most of us, at least."

Hank gave Charles a look as he stifled a yawn. "She does have a point." He admitted.

Laurien turned to the supposed time traveler. "Logan, does that work with your end?"

"Won't save us any time in the future if we leave right now, the address is going to happen at the same time, no matter when we leave." He said, shrugging. "Besides, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling peckish."

"Alright. Charles, is there any food in this house, whatsoever?"

"Uh…" Charles pondered unsurely for a moment before turning to glance at Hank.

"I believe…" Hank started, though paused and frowned. "There's some food in the pantry, but I wouldn't venture into the fridge if I were you."

"Wonderful." Laurien declared, clapping her hands unenthusiastically. "Take-out it is then."

* * *

Laurien sat cross-legged on the front concrete stairs of the mansion, protected from the biting morning chill by a large grey woolen cardigan around her shoulders and a mug of tea warming her hands. The sky had long since begun to lighten as the sun crept up from the East, casting its light across the lawn of the property and causing the strands of dew-laden grass to glint like sequins on a sweeping piece of fabric.

She took tentative sips from her mug, careful not to burn her tongue as the sweet aroma of mint overwhelmed her nostrils. Detaching a hand from around the mug, she held her palm up to her cheek, relishing in its intense contrast to her chilled face.

"Hey, Kid." Logan's gruff voice suddenly cut through the morning quiet, though thankfully, soft enough as to not startle Laurien into spilling her tea.

"Good morning." She greeted, glancing up at him as he strolled down the steps to her level before stopping, his hands planted in his jean pockets as he glanced out at the beauty before them.

"You're up early." He commented plainly.

Laurien found her eyebrow raising slightly as she turned her gaze from him to continue blindly observing the morning. "Says you."

"Have you eaten?"

"No."

"You planning on it?"

Laurien faltered, before taking a deep breath, reminding herself that the question was innocent enough. "Maybe. I'm just finding it difficult to even really think about it since- um…"

"Sera." Logan nodded in understanding before looking out at the view, the refreshing morning breeze faintly ruffling his styled hair. "It's good to be back here again."

"1973?" Laurien wondered, furrowing her brow. "Or the mansion?"

"The mansion." He clarified. "It looks the almost exactly same as it was. Though we had basketball courts, tennis, volleyball…" Logan trailed off, as if trying to remember what else there had been. "A heck of a lot of video games."

Laurien frowned. "Video games?"

Logan paused and then turned to look at her strangely. "Have you never seen a video game before?"

"Uh, not that I know of."

"Not even an arcade game?" He prodded.

Laurien scoffed. "I feel as if your disbelief towards me is a little unfair considering we're from different centuries."

"Alright, I'll lay off." He grinned, raising up his hands in submission.

"The most advanced game I've ever played is pinball." She admitted, feeling as if she must seem greatly uneducated from Logan's perspective. "Besides that, my experience is mostly limited to board games."

"Well, if that's the case, I'd advise you to buy stocks in Namco or Nintendo in the next couple of years."

Laurien chuckled at the ridiculousness of it all, having never heard the names before, and having no such interest in either video games or stocks. "Alright then, I'll keep that in mind."

A flock of geese passed noisily overhead, seemingly returning after spending the winter season somewhere enviably warm. Logan and Laurien watched them shrink into small specks off in the distance, and when they disappeared, Laurien found herself yearning after them.

"Is it still standing in the future?" She asked to break the silence, holding the mug closer to her lips, so that she was practically talking into her tea. "The mansion?"

"Yes." Logan's eyes darkened and an unmistakable misery flowed from his body, prompting her to shift uncomfortably in her seat. "But we had to evacuate. As of now, back in the future, it's being overrun by sentinels."

From what Laurien had gathered over the past couple of days, and from what she had found on the picture reel she'd stolen from Erik when she finally gave in to her curiosity, she knew sentinels to be large robots. Robots with the capability of taking life, if need be.

She had a difficult time imagining such monstrous things in the mansion, patrolling the lawns and taking up residence in the library with their all their futuristic bits and bobbles, but the dread that Logan emitted at their very thought sent shivers down her spine. "I'm sorry." She sympathized, gripping her mug a little tighter.

A particularly strong gust of wind assaulted them from the West, causing Laurien's dark caramel hair to tickle her face and impede her vision momentarily before it returned to its acceptable place. Over the past couple of years, her hair had darkened gradually, which she supposed was just a familial trait of getting older, considering her mother's hair had been fair when she was younger, and almost chocolate brown by the time she was thirty. As for how Sera had flaming red hair, she hadn't the slightest clue, perhaps a mutation side-effect.

"Did you have horses?" She asked Logan suddenly.

The man frowned, his mood lightening as his focus shifted. "No."

"Hmm, you'll have to talk to Charles about fixing that error after we change things in the future."

Logan paused, contemplating as he pulled out a cigar from his pocket. "You think we're going to make it?"

"Mmm, I don't know." Laurien stated truthfully after another sip of tea. "It's a nice thought, at least."

"Good tea?"

"Mmmhmmm." She hummed contently. "Are you more of a tea or coffee kind of guy?"

"Whiskey." He grunted out as he sat beside her on the concrete stairs.

"Ah." She nodded, "Look, I really appreciate what you did down there. I think it's going to make a real difference."

"It's nothing, he has done- uh- will do the same and much more for me in a few decades." A far off look glazed over Logan's eyes momentarily before he seemed to snap back to reality and tended to preparing his cigar. "He saved my life many times over."

"He's good at that, saving people." Laurien stated, absentmindedly stretching her legs out before her that had become stiff from sitting cross-legged. "Just seems like people who are, can't do the same for themselves."

"Usually, it's the people who save others, who hurt the most. They save to try and make themselves whole again." The man shared, his own words seemingly hitting a chord with himself as his hands paused their work. "Is that why you became a nurse?"

Laurien frowned, startled at the sudden shift. "How did you-"

Logan simply waved her inquiry away, beckoning for her to carry on and explain, as he placed the cigar in his mouth and lit it.

"Um, it just called out to me, I guess." She tried weakly, hoping that he couldn't tell that she was bullshitting him.

"Come on, kid, it's more than that." He garbled out from around the smoking cigar.

Laurien glanced into his hazel eyes, searching for any malice in his direction of conversation, yet she found none, only gentle persuasion. She took a deep breath. "After my parents' death, I kind of gravitated toward it. It was kind of like therapy, took my mind to a place where it would focus on the plights of other people, and not my own. It was good." She paused, the words feeling odd in her mouth after all this time. "It- It felt good."

She paused momentarily before grimacing, resisting the urge to bury her head in her hands. "Jesus, that sounds terrible."

"No, no, it's fine." Logan told her, his calming atmosphere soothing her doubts. "Go on."

"When I started staying with Charles and Hank here, I finished my degree and found an opening at Northern Westchester Hospital." In her mind's eye, she envisioned the pristine white tiled hallways which always seemed to be more hectic during a long weekend. Around three times a week, less if she was lucky, she'd have to wash the blood of a patient from her hands, as she worked in Emergency. Sometimes, it was almost impossible to get the blood out from under her nails. "There was chaos and it was messy, there were daily disappointments, sorrow, and more than my fair share of frustrating moments, but it just seemed to tune out all of the excessive noise going on inside my head."

"It was a good couple of years, strangely enough. The school was flourishing, the hospital kept my mind busy and Charles…" She paused, brief memories of his smiling face flashing in the forefront of her mind. "Well, he was Charles."

Her mouth slowly moulded into a frown. "But then the war came, took the students and teachers away from us, including Alex, and a darkness seemed to descend on Charles. He became a little distant as time went by, more insistent on staying in bed until noon, but still so loving and kind. I would never have even guessed that he'd do something so rash or…"

"Intrusive?" Logan suggested.

She nodded, running a warm hand through her hair. "I was so preoccupied with the hospital that I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Maybe if I had paid more attention to it all, to him, the cracks in his voice, the redness of his eyes, or his growing dependence on the serum, the whole thing could have been avoided."

"You couldn't have done anything." Logan grunted. "It was all Charles."

"Mmm, sometimes I can't help but believe otherwise." She admitted guiltily. "After everyone left, I found myself making excuses to spend more time at the hospital, but then after the attack on the mansion, well…" She paused, her eyelids lowering to hide the lingering disappointment her irises displayed so traitorously. "No one wants a nurse with shaky hands."

The sun had risen above the distant horizon by then, revealing the makings of a beautiful day for their travels and for the President's address.

"Look, I don't know if I should be telling you this, especially after you've told me all that." Logan began, rubbing his hands together as smoke billowed out of his mouth. "But… we've never met."

"Sorry?"

"I mean in the future. I never knew you." He clarified, the constant movements of his hands distracting her thought process. "I only recognized you from a photo Charles had of the both of you, maybe on a beach or something. Looked cold, wherever it was. He always had it on his desk whenever I went to speak with him in his study."

Laurien nodded slowly, taking it in, though knowing that he had something else to share. "I know the one."

"I asked him about it one day, who you were, why I had never seen you before?" He hesitated, leaving Laurien to latch on like a cliff hanger, waiting in foreboding of his upcoming words. "He told me you'd died over forty years ago."

"Oh." The news hit Laurien like a bullet to the chest, the impact pushing all the air in her lungs out in one sickening swoop. She turned her head back to gaze out at the rising sun over the many trees, though for some reason, all she could think about was which one she would be buried under. "When exactly?"

"A few months from now." He told her. "July, I believe."

She nodded, gripping her tea mug tighter as her grey eyes lowered to watch the dregs swirl around the bottom of the pottery. "How?"

"Painkiller overdose."

Laurien let out an involuntary breath of bitter amusement. "Seems about right."

"It doesn't have to be that way, you know?" Logan urged, extending a hand to gently grip her shoulder. "The whole reason I came back here was to change things."

Laurien swallowed with difficulty, what little was left of her confidence seemingly draining away as she could sense another headache coming about. "But what if Hank's right, and time is immutable?"

"Well, considering the future I came from." Logan said, staring out toward the horizon. "You'll be one of the lucky ones."

 **Has anyone seen Mock The Week? I'm quite fond of it. I have it on in the background as I'm writing this.**

 **Applying for a new job, hopefully it will go well.**

 **I enjoyed the Oscars, very pleased that Mahershala Ali won for Supporting Actor. I've loved him since being introduced to him in Luke Cage.**

 **Can someone please explain to me what being part of a community on this website means, because I seem to be a part of one and I haven't a single idea how I got there.**

 **I have seen Split with James McAvoy, and it was fricken amazing! I saw it with some friends of mine and we found it quite funny actually, which is weird for that subject matter. My friend actually cackled in the middle of the theatre. I still have yet to see Logan, and have actually avoided spoilers, so if any of you spoil it... well, I can't really do anything, but I tell you I will be very cross with you and I will kill off a beloved character, so be mindful please. Thank you.**

 **That's all for now, hope you enjoyed, thank you for reading, I love you all, and please review!**


	41. Chapter 41

**Hello, here's chapter 41, hope you enjoy!**

An overwhelming sense of claustrophobia was building in Laurien's chest as she tried to make her way through the crowd without getting elbowed in the ribs a fifth time. The lawns in front of the White House were teeming with people all trying to make their way through to the seating area, and it would have been an easy feat had it not been for the multiple security checkpoints which had everyone moving like sand in an hourglass.

Laurien found her gaze flitting nervously to each secret serviceman she spotted along the way, feeling completely vulnerable without the protection of her aviators on her face. She'd been advised against wearing them by Logan on the plane.

"I wouldn't wear those if I were you." He'd commented offhandedly near the end of their flight.

She had frowned. "What? Why not?"

Logan wordlessly tossed the newspaper he'd been reading throughout the flight into her lap. On the front cover was a blown up photo of Raven standing in the Embassy square underneath the bolded headline reading 'Nixon to address Paris incident'. Laurien paused, inquiring as to what it had to do with her aviators until her gaze lowered to another article beneath it and found her own photo displayed adjacent to the words 'Who is the levitating woman?'.

She took a deep breath, cursing the photographer who hadn't been distracted by the chaos below and had caught her descent from the window. Thankfully, it was at a bit of a distance, though close enough to recognize the same pair of aviators hiding her eyes from further identification. She quickly skimmed over the article, finding the sentences written too choppily for her taste.

'The levitating woman, as some are calling her, was one of the four beings who disrupted the Paris Peace Accords early Saturday morning. The woman arrived on the scene from the top floor window of the Embassy. She seemingly 'levitated' down to the square and immediately joined the fray.'

The rest of the article was an array of wild theories that amused her immensely until she reached one that struck a chord. 'While her identity is unknown as to this time, sources are describing her as an associate of Erik Lensherr's, criminal mastermind behind the assassination of JFK.'

Criminal mastermind? Laurien wondered to herself, raising an eyebrow. She was quite sure that Erik would like them to think of him as such. She folded the paper and placed it on the table. "Well, shit." Laurien sighed as she removed her aviators and tossed them on top of the paper before rubbing her temple. "I was beginning to become quite fond of those."

Logan gave her a slight smirk before taking the newspaper back.

As they inched closer to the security checkpoint, Laurien tilted back her head and surrendered herself to bask in the sunshine as it shone gloriously from above them, seeing if perhaps it could better her mood. It did, filling her from head to toe with warmth like a long sip of tea.

It was uncharacteristically hot for this time of year. She carried her jacket over her forearm, one much lighter than the one she'd worn in Paris, though even it was just a tad warm for this kind of weather. Comfortable in her cream peasant blouse, brown skirt and knee high boots, she felt as if spring were dawning early just for them as they attempted to correct the future.

Next to her, Hank was pushing Charles' manual wheelchair through the crowd alongside a grim looking Logan. Laurien couldn't be sure if it were Charles' own doing that the people surrounding them began giving their party a wide berth, allowing them to continue on an unimpeded path to the immediate lineup for security.

Charles was looking as haggard as usual, though with the added characteristic of a nervous twitch in his hands. The withdrawal from the serum had not been kind to him, and consequentially, he'd barely slept at all the night before. Though when he did, it was not devoid of painful memories, and she had known from the series of strange occurrences that had crept into her dreams.

* * *

Visions of herself had appeared before her eyes, smiling brightly as she laid upon a blanket draped across the green lawns of the mansion property. With a yawn, her arms extended above her in a slow stretch, showing her slightly swollen belly underneath her blue shirt from the start of her first pregnancy.

A summer melody danced through the evening breeze, mingling nicely with the sultry warbling of Elvis' voice that emanated from the record player they'd brought out with them. She mouthed the words of the song along with him and smiled when she noticed Laurien staring, her lips slightly stained from the juice of the blackberries they'd picked earlier.

A strange passion seemed to rise within her as she looked at herself. Familiar hands reached out and gently touched Laurien's body, soothingly massaging the skin of her thighs before gliding up further beneath her skirt and causing a soft moan to release itself from her lips.

Laurien's eyes had snapped open and had found herself gaping incomprehensibly at the ceiling of her bedroom in the mansion. Thoroughly confused and feeling more than a little scandalized, she took a deep breath and threw off the covers before finding her slippers and exiting her room. With her memory guiding her through the dark and empty hallways, she quickly found herself at Charles' door, deliberating whether or not to knock on it as her mind ran a mile per minute.

"Come in." Charles' voice told her from the other side of the door, and therefore leaving her no choice but to comply for risk of seeming completely rude.

Charles was sitting in his wheelchair by the window, still wearing the same clothes from the previous day. Slight tremors seemed to run through his body every now and then, as the withdrawals tortured him from the inside. He glanced up as she closed the door behind her. "Laurien." He announced, his tone seemingly surprised.

"Charles," Laurien said as she leaned up against the wall, a small grin tugging on the corner of her mouth. "You were projecting again."

Charles stared at her, his eyes growing wide as it dawned on him. "I was… Oh Fuck." He cursed, slumping even further in his chair as he shook his head. "I'm so sorry."

"It's alright, though I believe Logan and Hank may be a little bit out of sorts seeing me in the morning." She mentioned, making a face. "Can't wait for that."

Charles chuckled, rubbing his lined forehead before looking at her, the smile slowly fading from his face.

Laurien shifted uncomfortably, crossing her arms protectively over her chest as her own grin slipped away. "Are you alright, Charles?"

"How far along were you?" He asked tentatively after a moment. "The second time."

Laurien met his gaze, taking a deep breath. "Three months."

"I am- so sorry, Laurien."

Laurien shrugged, though it hurt her emotionally to do so. "It's okay, you didn't know."

"How come you never told me?" He inquired, rolling the wheelchair away from the window and closer to her.

"I was afraid of getting your hopes up, only for it not to take again."

Charles frowned. "You need not have been afraid."

"No, I did." She murmured, glancing down at her feet before looking back up at him, voicing something that had been bothering her for almost three years as panic started to rise within her. "Would you mind just explaining what you were thinking then?"

Charles set his jaw before pursing his lips, as if a bitter taste had entered his mouth. "I-I don't know."

"Come on, Charles." Laurien prodded as calmly as she could, though her next words seemed to spill out like a babbling brook under the immense pressure in her chest. "Don't waste this opportunity. You're likely not to get it again, so just help me to understand what your reasoning was."

Charles stared at her with a pained expression that sent fire flaring in her stomach with intense shame, before he took a shallow breath. "After Erik and Raven left, I was, well, not at my best, but I had you, Hank, Alex, Sean, and the school to help me." He disclosed. "You all kept me in one piece when all I wanted to do was fall apart. Those years together were some of the best I ever had."

"It was the same for me." Laurien admitted, gripping herself a little tighter.

"But with Sean's disappearance and our failure to find even one little trace of him, things started to get worse. When Alex and the students left, and then your miscarriage, all I had was you and Hank, and I was desperate not to lose the both of you." Charles explained, his voice becoming muddled as his emotions rose to the surface. "With how I was feeling, mentally and physically, and with the nature of your powers, I felt that my emotions might have been detrimental to your health, so I sought to dampen your capabilities, in an effort to save you from my depression."

Laurien took in a rattling breath as her eyes began to water. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought that we were safe here." He murmured out in a hoarse whisper, tears streaming down his face. "I would have never done it if I had known that… Oh, forgive me, Laurien."

He broke down, his body shaking uncontrollably as he bent double with his face in his hands. Laurien stepped forward wordlessly and crouched down next to him before enveloping him in her embrace. She held onto him tightly, one hand clutching the back of his shirt in a white knuckled grip as her other delicately stroked through his mess of hair. "It's alright, darling. You'll soon see." She cooed, her voice breaking under the pressure of subduing the tears that threatened to spill over. "I should have been more attentive to how you were feeling, I'm so sorry."

They held each other until Charles released her, gripping her hand like lifeline as he used his free one to wipe at his tear stained face. "This isn't going to work out again, will it?" He asked, seemingly knowing the answer already. "You and I."

"I'm sorry." Laurien apologized once more, cupping his cheek affectionately with her hand. "I won't leave until Raven's safe, I promise."

Charles gave a slight nod, his throat working furiously as he gasped out a hoarse thank you.

She gave him a small smile. "We were a pretty good team though, weren't we?"

"Yes." Charles said, returning the smile. "Yes, we were."

* * *

With Charles' intervention, they had finally reached the front of the line for security. Logan and Laurien waited back for Hank to push Charles through the metal detector with the chair ultimately setting it off.

The guard stepped forward with his hand outstretched. "Can I see your invitations, please?"

"Yes, you may." Charles told him nonchalantly as he raised his hand to his temple. "These three are with me."

The guard immediately nodded. "Go ahead." He ordered before waving Laurien and Logan through.

"Thank you."

Laurien followed after the others until she realized that Logan was no longer behind her. She glanced back and saw that he was still staring confusedly at the metal detector. "Logan." She called, grabbing his attention and drawing him over. "What was that?"

"I, uh, usually set those things off." Logan explained, frowning.

Laurien raised an eyebrow. "You got a metal plate in your head or something?"

"Yeah, something like that."

They soon found a spot to station Charles' wheelchair along with some veterans of the wars. They were situated in the first set of rows of people standing behind those sitting in front of the stage that had most likely been hastily erected on the lawn the night before. The stage was decked out in American adornments, red, white and blue banners and ribbons were draped wherever was possible, as the Stars and Stripes billowed proudly above them.

Laurien eyed the large mass that was hidden beneath a massive tarp behind the stage, wondering if she could trust her gut that it wasn't anything good.

Charles was quick to raise his hand up to his temple once more and search the minds of the crowd, though they weren't allotted much time to look around before a man, dressed in a sharp suit and tie, dashed up the steps of the stage and spoke into the microphone on the podium.

"The President of the United States." He announced, before disappearing off the stage to the raucous eruption of applause.

A man stepped onto the stage and Laurien instantly recognized him from the countless front page articles, news interviews and addresses. Richard Nixon, smartly dressed in a suit and tie, raised his hands and greeted the audience with a double peace salute. A beaming smile on his face, he settled himself behind the podium and as much as Laurien disliked him, she couldn't deny the charisma that he exuded.

"My fellow Americans," He started after the applause had finally died down. "Today, we face the greatest threat in our history: Mutants." At his words, Laurien couldn't help but scoff, causing the woman seated in front of her to look back in confusion. Laurien muttered out an apology before turning back to the speech.

"We have prepared for this threat. In the immortal words of Robert Oppenheimer," He declared, extending his arm to the hidden mass behind him. "'Behold. The world will never be the same again.'"

The sheet was pulled off to reveal a row of massive robots, decked out in purple paint and yellow eyes. A roar of awe met her ears as Laurien stared up at them, though a sudden force pushed all the air out of her lungs in one fell swoop as a terrible sinking sensation gripped her. She turned and saw Logan's usually steady face transform into one of terror.

"Is that them?" Laurien whispered to him, her eyes wide from second hand fear.

"A crude prototype, in comparison." He replied breathlessly. "But yeah, that's them."

Charles' voice jolted their attention from the sentinels. "I have her."

"Where is she?" Hank asked, mingled excitement and anxiety lacing his words.

Charles pointed toward a middle aged man who seemed frozen in mid stride. "There, see? Secret Service man, left of the stage."

"Got it." Logan grunted, before he and Hank started to move.

"Wait." Laurien objected, prompting Logan and Hank to stop in their tracks. "Look, with all due respect, she may not react the best of ways when seeing the both of you. Let me go to her alone, as a friend."

Logan and Hank seemed uncertain, yet Charles nodded with conviction. "Go."

Laurien started on her way, weaving through the crowd of people in the direction of where she'd seen the frozen man. An audible collective of gasps caused Laurien to glance toward the stage, only to see the sentinels lifting off from the ground in a uniform formation. An all too familiar sense of foreboding and worry prompted her to move a little more urgently before she found herself nearing a guard who blocked her from reaching Raven.

Seeing a young man leaning back in his chair, Laurien took the opportunity to tug it a little farther with her powers, while leaving gravity to do the rest and send him crashing to the ground. As a small commotion arose as the others around him either laughed or ushered to help him up, the guard turned to look at them, and, consequentially, allowed Laurien to slip by him unnoticed.

She was just about to reach for Raven's arm when a barrage of gunfire caused her to duck down in reflex as screams erupted around her.

 **Voila, a cliffhanger to annoy you all! Hope you're all well and are looking forward to summer. Has anyone seen Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2? It was better than the first, in my opinion. Ah, Chris Pratt. Going to see Alien: Covenant later today with some buds, can't resist the double Fassy feature.**

 **Thank you all very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, and please review or ask any questions below!**


	42. Chapter 42

**Hellooooooo everyone! I think it's just commonplace that my chapters take forever to come out, at least I can be consistent in that respect. This is the longest chapter I have written to date, and it sure as hell feels like it. So I hope you are all well, and here's Chapter 42! Enjoy responsibly!**

Laurien's gaze snapped up to see that one of the sentinels in the sky had lifted its arm and was firing its machine gun rounds at a nearby police car. The rear end of the cruiser exploded in a large ball of flame, flipping the entire car forward and onto its back. Screams pierced through the air as the crowd dispersed into a frantic mess of clambering bodies, all trying to get as far away from the sentinels as possible.

As a slight tremor ran through her body, Laurien glanced back to ground level and noticed that the man who Raven was impersonating had begun to move toward where the other secret servicemen were evacuating the President and Trask. Laurien quickly latched onto the back of Raven's suit collar with her powers and dragged her back until she managed to get a firm grasp on Raven's arm.

"Raven, you can't go through with this, it's only to going to make things worse."

The man looked at her with such confusion and fear in his blue eyes that Laurien was suddenly afraid that she'd grabbed the wrong person, but then a familiar flash of yellow in his irises confirmed Raven's identity. "Let me go, Laurien." She hissed through clenched teeth as she tried to pull herself out of Laurien's grasp. "Trust me, the world will be a better place if men like Trask aren't in it."

Laurien held on tight, trying her best to stand her ground as people bumped into her in their effort to escape. "Look, I understand what you mean, but this is not the way to go about it." She reasoned, wincing as a palpable heat radiated off of Raven's body, giving Laurien the impression that she was standing too close to a raging bonfire.

Raven then turned on her, gripping Laurien's shoulders hard as she shook her slightly. "He killed Angel and Sean, Laurien. That bastard doesn't deserve to live another day."

"What?" Laurien's eyes went wide as her breath was effectively pushed from her lungs, wondering if she'd heard her properly over the noise. "How do you know that?" She demanded, her heart beating hard against her ribcage at the mention of their former teammates.

"I saw the pictures in his files." Raven snarled, her expression becoming thoroughly menacing on the stranger's face. "He gutted our friends for his own personal gain, and you want to spare him?"

Laurien opened her mouth, but found that her words were impeded by the sudden lump in her throat. Sean was dead. After all the years of not knowing, they finally had their answer. Heat bubbled up in her chest at the realization of how much Trask had taken from them, only for it to be cooled with the reminder of the sorrow and fear that had earlier filled Logan when he had laid eyes upon the sentinels.

She stared into Raven's eyes, shaking her head. "Please."

Raven met her gaze, the hard look on her face dissolving into one of remorse before she suddenly ripped her arm from Laurien's slackened grasp and elbowed her in the face, hitting her squarely in the cheekbone. Stunned, Laurien took a sharp step back, only to trip on an overturned chair, and was sent crashing to the ground.

A sharp intake of breath passed between her lips as her lower back landed heavily on the chair, causing her body to arch uncomfortably. She groaned as she rolled onto her side, cursing herself just as much as she cursed Raven before glancing up towards her mark, only to find that she was gone.

"Shit." Laurien spat, tasting blood in her mouth as she guessed that she'd accidentally bit the inside of her cheek. Laurien struggled to get to her feet, clutching at her aching back as she scanned the scene before her. People were still struggling to escape from the site, tumbling over chairs and pushing one another, and all the while, the sentinels had risen higher in the sky. She squinted up at them, wondering as to what had happened? Had they malfunctioned or had that been the example of their capacities? If it had been the latter, the government had just made a major blunder in their marketing scheme.

Laurien grimaced as a screaming voice somehow rose above the chorus of cries from the crowd, ringing in her ears and invading her head. She clasped her hands over her ears, wincing as it reached shrill proportions, though it did nothing to dampen the sound. Only then did she recognize Charles' pained voice.

"Erik!"

Ice water surged through her veins as the realization overtook her and she bolted into the river rapid of bodies. Laurien hadn't made it too far before she lost her footing as she flinched when another car to her right was hit with a sudden barrage of gunfire, causing it to explode. She lifted her arm to shield her face as an intense heat emanated from the wreckage, but was spared from being touched by the flame. She scrambled to her feet and lurched away from the fire, grabbing onto a nearby chair to right herself before continuing on.

The only thought that was coherent through the torrent of things racing through her mind as she weaved through the crowds, was that she should never have left Erik on his own in Paris. She shouldn't have complied to his refusal to go back to the hotel, she should have done something, knocked him out and made him walk like a marionette down the dark lit streets the entire way back to the hotel.

As she searched for any familiar face, a shadow fell upon their sunny surroundings. The crowd soon thinned out enough for Laurien to take the risk and to stop to look up at what had caused it. Her heart stopped as she witnessed what appeared to be a gigantic stadium floating perhaps only a hundred meters above them, with a single man suspended in the middle of it.

Panic had long since become a companion to her mind, though it eased a little when she laid eyes upon one of her companions. Logan seemed similarly relieved when he spotted her in turn, latching onto her hand tightly once she'd ran over, as if he were afraid to lose her again.

"Is Hank with Charles?" She asked breathlessly as he guided her back through the remaining stragglers and heavy falling debris, knowing that the stadium was descending ever lower and would trap them inside its perimeter if they didn't hurry.

"No, Charles sent us both out to find you." Logan stated quickly.

Laurien stopped dead in her tracks, jerking Logan back by the connection of their arms, promptly missing a plummeting slab of concrete that buried itself deep into the ground where they would have been. "And you obeyed him?" She asked, more of an accusation than a question.

Logan faltered, the muscles in his jaw twitching. "He was- very convincing."

Laurien sighed, knowing from the experience the length of Charles' stubbornness. The piercing sound of gunshots caused her to flinch at they met her ears, giving her a second's warning before she noticed the trail of disturbances in the lawn making its way toward them. She called out to warn Logan, though arms suddenly wrapped tightly around her from behind, bodily turning her down and away from the source of the shots.

The gunfire mowed over them. Laurien gasped as she felt Logan's body react with every bullet that met his skin, his grip on her tightening with each painful impact. The gunfire faded away and with a low growl from the man holding her, they both straightened back up.

Logan spun her around, his hands gripping her shoulders tightly. "You alright?" He asked firmly as his eyes frantically checked her for any wounds. "Did any of them get you?"

Laurien shook her head, simply staring at the man in shock and awe. "W-What about you?" She asked incredulously.

Logan grimaced in response, releasing her to flex out his shoulders with a groan before shaking out his leather jacket, prompting a few small items to fall to the ground, and upon closer look, she recognized them to be bloody bullets.

"Come on." He urged, pulling her along as they resumed making their way to where they finally saw Charles rolling towards them with difficulty, the muscles in his arms straining as he traversed over the lawn.

Just then, the sound of groaning metal alerted them to the horrific sight of a large piece of scaffolding detaching itself from the stadium and hurtling down right over where Charles was currently. Logan yelled his name, prompting Charles to look up and see the falling metal. He threw himself from his chair in a last ditch attempt, only for the metal to freeze in place only a few feet above him.

Laurien had her arms outstretched, feeling the vibrations of her pulse echo through the metal in her power's grasp. She carefully guided it away from where Charles was lying on the ground, his wide bloodshot eyes flitting between her and the scaffolding. In a moment of rage, she snapped the scaffolding into individual pieces before sending it soaring towards one of the sentinels. The rods buried themselves deep into its eyes and chest, causing the sentinel to plummet to the ground, just as the stadium planted itself into the ground with an ear-shattering boom and sealed them in.

Laurien rushed over to Charles and grabbed his face in between her hands as her eyes searched his body for any injuries. "Are you alright?" She asked, her heart feeling like it was trying to burst from her chest.

He clutched her wrists comfortingly as he nodded, eyes shut in relief. "I believe I'm alright." He assured her before turning his head to press his lips against her palm. "Thank you."

Laurien found that she could only nod in response, not quite realizing that he couldn't see it. She let go of him and looked around, taking in the new monstrous barriers that cut them off from the rest of the world. At the top of the stadium, the sentinels stood ominously along the rim, staring down at them with their bright yellow eyes before turning outward to ward off any outside rescue.

She was brought back to earth by the arrival of Hank, his orange suit sprinkled in dust and soot. "What did I miss?" He asked nonchalantly before letting out a strained cough.

"What happened to you?" Logan grunted as he none-too carefully gathered Charles into his arms and deposited him back into his chair.

Hank waved him off as another fit of coughing overtook him, his eyes watering from the strain on his lungs. Laurien rummaged in her bag and found her water bottle before handing it to Hank, almost dropping it in the process as her hands shook violently.

"This is Erik, isn't it?" Hank asked after he'd suppressed his cough for the time being. "He's taken control of the sentinels."

"But how can he have?" Laurien demanded, shaking her head in confusion. "I've seen the blueprints for these things. There isn't even an inch of metal on them for him to control."

"He must have incorporated it into them himself." Charles reasoned, shifting in his seat uncomfortably.

"Brilliant." Hank muttered disgruntledly as he wiped off the dust from his glasses with the bottom of his shirt.

Charles then grabbed Laurien's wrist, his desperation seeping into her skin. "Did you make contact with Raven?"

She shook her head. "I tried, she didn't seem to interested in hearing what I had to say."

"Where is she now?"

"Last I saw her, she was making her way to the White House."

"Us trying to get in would be too risky." Hank added.

"What about Magneto?" Logan asked as he looked off into the distance, distracted by something.

"Somehow I don't think Erik's too concerned about getting into the White House." Laurien murmured almost to herself as she followed Logan's gaze and watched Erik lower himself to the ground, his cape settling around his solid form. She turned to the others. "Do we know who he's targeting? The President, or Trask?"

Hank shrugged, adjusting his leather jacket. "Both, most likely."

"Well, whatever it is," Charles reasoned, "We need to get him out of here and minimize the damage."

"I think it's too late for that." Logan grunted humorlessly, causing uneasy lump to settle in Laurien's throat as the implications of his words rose with their own consequences.

Her fears were interrupted with the sound of Charles maneuvering his wheelchair away from them and through the obstacles of debris. Laurien frowned. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Getting out of the bloody way." Charles yelled over his shoulder, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Are you going to be alright on your own?" Hank called after him, only to receive an irritable "Go!" as a response.

"Well," Laurien murmured, raising an eyebrow at the others as she mentally and physically prepared herself. "I guess we're doing this then."

They set off, navigating their way through the obstacles to the outskirts of the clearing in the middle of which Erik was standing with his arm outstretched to the White House. They stopped behind a mass of concrete and rubble, taking advantage of its enormous size to give them cover as they gathered their bearings.

Laurien's body ached all over as she took a quick glance over the top of the mound, carefully observing the clearing. It was littered with abandoned chairs, metal scaffolding and concrete. Erik stood in the middle walkway between the clusters of seats, wearing a sort of armour of which Laurien had never seen before. It was all one colour this time, and for that Laurien was thankful. Consistently maroon, not the frightening contrast of red and purple that he had previously sported. What he thought he was doing, Laurien hadn't a single clue. Her eyes shifted warily to where behind him stood a solitary sentinel, almost four times his height.

"I'm probably not supposed to ask this kind of thing," Hank suddenly started, drawing back Laurien's attention. "But in the future, do I make it?"

"No." Logan replied bluntly, earning himself an exasperated look from Hank, but then the other man continued, quickly glancing at Laurien. "But we can change that, right?"

She nodded half-heartedly as Hank whipped off his glasses, growling with heaving breaths as blue hair sprouted from his body, transforming him into the Beast. He bared his teeth at Erik as they drew the metal-bender's attention.

With a glance from Erik, the sentinel turned and raised its arm, sending a barrage of machine gun fire in their direction. Laurien ducked down, pressing her back against a slab of concrete as Logan and Hank jumped back down from the mound to avoid the bullets. The sound of gun fire was then replaced with that of a small jet engine as the sentinel flew up into the air and over Laurien's head.

It landed in a crouch on the ground before Logan before straightening up and taking a swipe at the man with its massive fist. Logan skillfully evaded the blow and advanced upon the sentinel just as it started to fire at him once more. Claws fully extended, he jammed them into the rotating gears of the gun, eliciting a cry of mixed anger and pain from the man as it shifted and pulled at his bones. Logan managed to dislodge himself and drew back, but not before the sentinel's heavy leg kicked out and sent him soaring into a pile of rubble.

Laurien jumped from the mound and made to advance forward to help Logan when something landed in front of her. She looked up to find another sentinel towering over her, blocking the sun from her view and becoming a dark monster with two glowing jewels for eyes. It raised its arm and for the quickest of moments, she found herself staring down the barrel of a gun once more.

A terrible heat washed over her as crimson flashes invaded her mind and the sentinel was suddenly jerked back. Its entire form shuddered violently as its arm flew out to the side, littering a nearby patch of disturbed earth with bullets before the material contorted and groaned, prompting the arm to detach and fall with an almost comical thump. Like a disease, the affliction quickly spread across its body to its other extremities. The sentinel wavered dangerously as one of its legs departed the rest of his body at the hip and sparks flew from its sockets as the yellow eyes sunk back into its head. Having endured enough abuse as its purple breastplate caved in and exposed the mechanical organs within, the sentinel eventually folded in on itself and crumpled to the ground, a shell of its former grandeur.

Laurien let out a shuddering breath as she released her hold on the dead creation, her wet eyes staring unseeingly at the corpse. Air did not come easy as her chest and throat constricted tightly, causing her breaths to come in shallow, desperate gasps. The sound of further gunfire prompted her to screw her eyes shut as she bent double, her pulse pounding in her ears like an inconsistent drumbeat.

A strange hum met her ears, prompting Laurien to look up with pained eyes for the source of the noise. She climbed up to the top of the pile of rubble again and noticed that the staircases leading to the balcony of the White House had tilted forward and that the benches in front of it began to inch themselves forward. The shattering of the windows gave only a split second warning before the front of the White House exploded, sending marble debris raining down upon the lawns as an enormous metal crate burst from the carnage. It flew above the stage and was propelled a few more meters before crashing to the ground before Erik.

The metal bender raised his hand and ripped the door to the crate off its hinges, before thinking better of it and tearing the entire front wall off. As the sunlight revealed the contents of the crate, Laurien's stomach flipped when she saw that they were people. Some of the secret servicemen within reached for their fallen guns when they saw who greeted them, though they were swiftly swept away by an invisible force. The guns rose into the air above Erik's form, their barrels pointed intently at the men in the crate.

Erik turned, a slight smirk across his lips as he raised his hands, before turning them inward, and at his behest, the abandoned news cameras illuminated. Eyes widening in horror, Laurien raised a hand to her mouth as she put two and two together. She couldn't even fathom as to how many people would be watching.

"You built these weapons to destroy us." Erik started, gesturing to the remaining sentinels. "Why? Because you are afraid of our gifts. Because we are different. Humanity has always feared that which is different." He paused, raising his chin and gritting his teeth into a snarl. "Well, I'm here to tell you, to tell the world, you're right to fear us. We are the future. We are the ones who will inherit this earth, and anyone who stands in our way will suffer the same fate as these men you see before you."

Laurien grimaced and searched frantically through her bag, only to find the absence of her trusted bottle of pills. She cursed under her breath, searching again but receiving the same result. Realizing that it must have fallen out when she'd tripped over the chair, Laurien looked up just in time to see the first sentinel reach up to where Hank was latched onto its back, grab him, and toss him aside as if he weighed nothing. Hank's body crashed through the rear window of a nearby police car and disappeared within.

"Today was meant to be a display of your power. Instead, I give you a glimpse of the devastation my race can unleash upon yours. Let this be a warning to the world."

The sentinel advanced toward the police car and reached down with its still functioning hand, but before it could touch the roof of the car, Laurien let out a pained cry as she sent a metal rod through the side of its head. It sputtered and died, collapsing backwards with a bang, just as another sentinel touched down on the ground and began to charge at her. In a split second of panic, she raised her fists and held it frozen within her grasp at a distance, her hands shaking with the effort to suppress the horse power behind it.

"And to my mutant brothers and sisters out there, I say this; no more hiding, no more suffering. You have lived in the shadows in shame and fear for too long. Come out, join me. Fight together in the brotherhood of our kind."

The sound of broken glass scraping against metal alerted Laurien to Hank's presence as he emerged from the car, now in his human form. "Hank." She called, sweat accumulating on her brow as she felt herself draining rapidly from the strain. "Can you quickly dispatch this one for me?"

Hank's face fell as he opened his palm to reveal three syringes to her, all of which were empty. Laurien felt her mouth go dry at she looked at them before dragging her eyes away. "It's okay." She assured him before glancing back to where Erik was. "Go find Charles, see if he's alright."

"A new tomorrow, that starts today." Erik declared as he finished his spiel, and movement from within the bowels of the crate seemed to be creating a commotion. Multiple voices cried out as a solitary figure made his way through the crowd of frightened men, with several of them trying to grab him.

The President of the United States emerged from the safety of the crate. "Stand down!" He ordered to his men, though as he advanced, the secret servicemen continued to fuss over him. "I said stand down!" He repeated.

Nixon stopped only a few metres from where Erik stood with his barrage of guns. "You want to make a statement? Kill me? Fine! But spare everyone else!" He declared with a ferocity that Laurien had never heard come from the man's mouth before, a ferocity that didn't seem likely for a man like him to possess in this sort of situation.

Erik smirked. "Very heroic, Mr. President. But you have no intention of sparing any of us. The future of our species begins now."

Laurien's eyes widened as she heard the collective clicking of the guns' hammers being pulled back. Desperate thoughts raced through her mind as she knew that there was a possibility that she may not gain control of them all in time. For even one bullet to escape her grasp meant they'd failed to uphold the hope that had been entrusted to them by the mutants yet to come and their inevitable condemnation. And that was most certainly not acceptable.

"Erik!" Laurien called as a severely reckless idea came to mind, effectively jarring Erik's attention and causing his smirk to vanish. He stared at her, as her own knowing grin crept onto her face before she suddenly opened her hands and released her hold on the sentinel that then continued its charge towards her.

It all seemed to dawn on him in a split second as a cry was ripped from Erik's lips. She could see the approaching sentinel in the corner of her eye as she gritted her teeth, her instincts screaming at her as she forced herself to stay still. Erik raised a hand and clenched it, causing the sentinel to lose limb after limb on its way, before it crashed into the ground only feet from her frozen form.

A gunshot immediately rang out after the sentinel stilled, striking an intense fear into Laurien's very core as the sound echoed around the mess of a stadium, a fear that one of Erik's guns had gone off after all. She glanced over at Erik, only to find him clutching at his neck and on his knees, gasping like a fish out of water as he stared at the figure that had formerly been Richard Nixon, now revealing themselves to be Raven slowly lowering a gun. She then limped toward the man on his knees before executing a perfect roundhouse kick to the head, effectively knocking Erik to the ground and rendering him unconscious.

Raven stood still for a moment before suddenly turning to face the men in the crate as she raised the gun once more. Laurien reached out with her powers and took control of the firearm, though at the same time, a hand grabbed hers tightly, jarring her attention. She glanced to the side in alarm, only to see Charles as he gave her a slight shake of his head.

"Raven, please, do not make us the enemy today." He uttered, his other hand raised to his temple as his connection extended to his sister. Raven's voice could be heard faintly from where she stood, though Laurien could not quite make it out clearly.

"Not all of us." He replied as if talking to himself. "All you've done so far is save the lives of these men. You can show them a better path."

"Shut her down, Charles." Hank told him, though Charles paid no mind.

"I've been trying to control you ever since the day we met, and look what that's got us." He admitted, his eyes fluttering to meet Laurien's for a moment as he squeezed her hand. "Everything that happens now is in your hands. I have faith in you, Raven."

Charles' hand fell from his temple and Laurien turned back to the scene before them, her heart beating so fast that her chest hurt as she waited for Raven to move. She prayed to no one in particular that the girl that she knew, and had talked to for hours at a time in their youth about films, celebrities, and the plans they each had for the future, would make the right choice. A moment later, Raven let the gun slip through her fingers and fall to the ground.

Tentative relief flowed from the men in the crate as Raven turned on her heel and walked toward the prone body. "He's all yours, Charles." Raven growled, leaning down and ripping the helmet from Erik's head.

With his hand once again to his temple, Charles took control. In the clearing, Erik stood up, his movements so strange and unlike him that Laurien could tell at what point Erik regained control. The man turned to glance around him at the carnage that he had willfully caused, before his gaze lifted to his former teammates, a stream of blood flowing sluggishly from his neck. "If you let them have me, I'm as good as dead. You know that." He pleaded.

Charles lifted his chin, his voice strong and steady as he addressed the man. "I know."

Erik gave him a small nod. "Goodbye, old friend."

"Goodbye, Erik."

Erik's eyes met Laurien's for a split second, and from the shift in his emotions that met her from afar, she could tell that he wasn't quite finished yet, before he lifted his hands and levitated into the air.

"You sure you should let them go?" Hank wondered, his eyes following Raven before she disappeared from their line of sight.

"Yes, I have hope for them." Charles murmured with a strange smile, prompting Laurien to frown in turn. "There's going to be a time, Hank, when we are all together."

Hank looked rather nonplussed. "What about Logan?" He asked, drawing attention to their missing member.

As his words sparked fear in her heart, Laurien glanced around at their surroundings, her eyes searching for the mysterious man of the future. She had admittedly lost track of him after he'd been sent flying by a particularly vicious kick from the first sentinel. She hoped that he was still around, she wanted to have the opportunity to thank him for saving her earlier. He couldn't be far, though wherever he was, she wondered if he could tell whether they'd done any good.

 **So we are just nearly finished the DOFP story line, I suppose. I am open to suggestions from you all for Apocalypse. In X Men: Dark Phoenix news, I heard that Magneto's costume looks rather god-like or something, and that it hints that he may be taking on a mighty cult leader role. From a movie watching and Fanfic writing stance, I am not a fan of this, can't he just be good this movie? I can't keep coming up with reasons that Laurien shouldn't just dump his ass for good.**

 **In other news, school is out and summer is not offering a lot of amusement just yet, with the exception of Canada Day. That was oodles of fun. I saw Wonder Woman finally, but we were a bit late for the screening and we were forced to sit in the front row, so it was like watching a 3D movie without the 3D glasses. Everyones' hands were so much bigger in proportion to the rest of their body, it was hilarious, but I'll probably have to see it again for the full effect.**

 **Anyone a Hamilton fan? It's so good!**

 **Anywho, that was Chapter 42! Hope you enjoyed, love you all, and please review or comment below!**


	43. Chapter 43

**Hello! Happy two year story anniversary! This is very late, but limited dialogue chapters are hard... Here's Chapter 43, enjoy!**

Laurien shut the flaps of the cardboard box and then reached for the roll of tape to seal it shut. Satisfied that nothing would come spilling out of it, she got up from her seat on the carpet and made her way over to the fridge. Though devoid of anything substantial, besides Jane's now three-week old lasagna that had a sizable layer of mould accumulating on the top, it contained what Laurien direly needed in that moment, a cold beer. She twisted off the top with the gentle persuasion of her powers and took a healthy swig as she observed the room before her.

There were perhaps ten decent sized boxes she'd completed in the past few hours, with the majority destined for the thrift store or the salvation army, considering the fact that she didn't want to be dragging them all to wherever she'd end up next. With almost everything packed up, the house looked unusually barren. No picture frames lined the walls, or the old carved wooden figures upon the mantelpiece that her Opa had made so many years ago. The absence of her many books that had taken up residence on the bookcases next to her reading chair gave the impression that they were missing the meat that so naturally clung to their bones.

She had debated on whether or not to take the chair with her. It was a dark wooded rocking chair with a deep crimson cushion tied to the backrest and the seat with the small tassels on each corner. There were orange knitted slips on the rockers that Laurien had made herself to prevent the chair from leaving marks on the hardwood. She'd found it at the thrift store during a trip into the city, and after taking a seat in it and rocking back and forth in it for a few moments, had bought it on the spot. Her mother had had one similar ever since Dan was first born, and Laurien was read many stories upon her father's lap when they were trying to wind down after a long day of running around the yard. She'd recently found that the gentle rocking soothed the unbearable throbbing that rose in her head, and took to it like a drug. Unfortunately, considering that she cringed every time she thought about the cost of bringing it with her overseas, their parting of ways seemed to be approaching soon.

It felt strange to become so nostalgic of this house after three years of it never really feeling like home, but even so, Laurien allowed herself a moment to reminisce with the comforting company of her beer. Her gaze was drawn to one of the walls where a large patch of drywall was obviously newer than the rest. She'd had to fix it herself when she'd come back home, having stared at it for a moment once she'd entered through the front door, wondering as to what the hell had happened when she was gone, before remembering the events prior to her departure.

Needless to say, the men were not still strewn around her property, but still Laurien took the precaution of checking every inch of the house before hesitantly settling back in for the time being. Staying in the house, in Ottawa, was not an option after all that had happened. She had known that from the first signs of dawn after she had been staring at the ceiling for the entirety of the first couple of nights she'd been home, always listening intently for sounds in the dark, anything that could reveal that there was a team of government agents outside her door.

The sense of uneasiness was too much to bear, though at the same time, the process of finding yet another new place to live, along with a new identity, was beyond irritating. It would be much more difficult this time as well, considering the source of her previous papers and identification, her old companion, Bellamy Awnan, had had his past finally catch up with him a year prior. He'd been found in an alleyway, just next to a pub in Berlin, with a bullet hole between his brown eyes. She couldn't exactly say that she was overly surprised upon hearing the news from his partner, considering the steadily lengthening list of ridiculous instances where he'd put his own life in danger, but at the same time, she was sorry that he was gone.

She set her beer down on the counter, just next to the newspaper she'd received on her doorstep that morning. The front page was littered with all sorts of headlines vying for the readers' attention. The first that caught her eye spelt out in large bolded letters that 'Mutant saves president and cabinet'. Further down, other articles depicted more of the aftermath, with repairs and reconstruction to begin for both the White House and the RFK Stadium, the announcement of the arrest of Bolivar Trask, and consequentially, the cancellation of the Sentinel Program.

Laurien's shoulders had sagged in relief upon reading the news, seeing as she supposed that it was as sure of a positive response to their actions as they could have ever hoped for. Whether or not it had any lasting impact for the future, she couldn't be sure. There had been no sign of Logan in the following days after the incident on the front lawns of the White House. Laurien couldn't quite be sure at what point during the battle that she had lost visual contact with him, and for all she and the others knew, he could have just disappeared into thin air.

Even two weeks later, there was still news coverage about the event being broadcast around the globe and mutants were now coming out of the shadows every day, much to the surprise of their friends and neighbours. Laurien knew that having the cameras rolling had been a great risk should something have gone wrong, and it almost had. In the end, it had allowed the world to see the scene unfolding before them and interpret it themselves, rather than the government feeding a biased and manipulated story to the people.

There seemed to be a new piece that the news would cover about the story every day, starting off with Raven and all the theories and questions surrounding her. The broadcasters took phone calls and statements from those who had seen her in the flesh at the Paris Accords or those who had watched her save the day on television. There was an all-around tone of fascination directed toward Raven, which sent a slight thrill of excitement into Laurien's heart as she attentively listened to complete strangers gush about her.

The piece on the cost of the damage caused by the incident was much less interesting, with financial and insurance experts droning on about millions of dollars in dull, monotone voices. Probably sensing that they were losing their audience's attention, the network then quickly shifted their gaze upon Erik Lensherr, AKA Magneto, and the entire timeline of his 'nefarious' crimes against humanity. As they had with Raven's piece, they took phone calls, but all it took was one person to phone in saying that Erik was right to 'fucking stick it to the man' for them to promptly shut it down.

Another article in the paper had stated that the world leaders had all pledged to unite and find Magneto. "Well," Laurien had muttered to herself, "At least they're working together for once." There hadn't been any more signs or events related to Erik since Washington, and personally, after hearing first-hand about all of his years of running and hiding, Laurien doubted that Erik would be found unless he wanted to be.

Laurien felt strange when she would watch Erik's speech that the network was playing for the hundredth time. Even though she was there in person, had heard the speech with her own ears and had seen the words come from his mouth, it didn't quite seem like it was really him saying it. The ferocity in his voice sent ice cold shivers down her spine as she stared at the screen, his face never quite visible as his helmet cast shadows upon his features.

Though a few weeks had come and gone, an anger was still so ever present in the blood that pumped through her veins. In which direction it was aimed, whether inward or outward, Laurien hadn't the slightest clue. She took a deep breath. Part of her ached terribly as she stood in the kitchen, staring unseeingly at the boxes as she thought about the past interactions that inspired this sensation inside of her.

She'd had a particularly abrupt departure from the mansion in Westchester, having only stayed for a few days after the mess in Washington. She'd debated just leaving without saying a word, but a guilty pang in her stomach prevented her from doing such a thing. With her bags packed and a taxi on its way, Laurien had tentatively padded over to Charles' study and slipped through the slight opening.

Charles was seated in his wheelchair just behind his desk, flipping through an ancient copy of some book that was devoid of a title. His blue eyes flitted up once she closed the door behind her and met her gaze, the reduced redness around the rims told her that he had finally gotten some rest.

Laurien kept his gaze for a few moments before her hands reached up to her throat and grasped the necklace as she pulled it up over her head. The simple ring on the end of the chain glinted in the single ray of light that snuck past the curtain and into the study's choking confinement.

She heard a small intake of breath from him as she held it in the palm of her hand before it levitated gently through the air and onto Charles' desk before him, the chain coiling itself up into a perfect spiral upon the mahogany. She watched the telepath, waiting for the inevitable reaction that was to follow.

"You kept it." Charles said, a slight hint of disbelief in his voice. She gave him a small nod, keeping close to the door as his emotions bombarded her from across the room. In response, he closed the book with a sigh, his fingers hovering tentatively above the ring as he searched for the words. "So, this is goodbye." He murmured, a sad smile appearing on his face. "But for how long?"

"I don't know." Laurien admitted quietly, crossing her arms over her chest as a blue hue edged into her vision. "To be honest, I wouldn't count on it being anytime soon."

He nodded slowly. "Where will you go?"

She shrugged. "I haven't quite figured that part out just yet."

"But you'll be alright?"

"Of course." She assured him as a smile tugged at her lips.

The silence in the air between them seemed to be growing quite prolonged as each waited for the other to break it. Laurien found herself trying to avoid Charles' piercing eyes, as she knew that the moment they found her, they would make leaving all the more challenging. "What about yourself?" She finally asked, feeling his relief flow towards her. "What are you going to do next?"

"I suppose I'll try to get the school up and running again." He revealed freely, though Laurien could sense foreboding lingering in his mind. "I've got some promises to keep."

Laurien wondered if he was alluding to the conversation he'd had with Logan on the plane to Washington. She'd heard every word as she'd pretended to be asleep, and she was sure that he was aware that she had. Logan had mentioned so many names, and it filled her heart to know that there were newcomers who would make his heart whole once more. What sent a stabbing pain through her chest was the fact that she was one of the people who had made it so empty in the first place.

"Well, I wish you well in your endeavour, Charles." She declared softly, her heart aching as she uttered his name for what she predicted to be the last time.

"And you in yours." He returned, flashing a smile that she knew was not deserved. She had given him one last look, before turning to open the door and leaving the past behind.

Laurien took the beer bottle in her hand and took another sip, wanting so desperately to erase the scene from her memories. She couldn't help but feel as if she had left him when he had needed her most, twice now. At least he still had Hank, she thought hopefully, though then again, Hank was never one to stand up to Charles when the latter wanted something, even if it meant a risk to his health and wellbeing.

She sighed and walked over to the remaining boxes that had yet to be filled with objects, only to be halted when a slight knocking sound met her ears. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she held her breath, considering as to who it might be. It couldn't have been the neighbours, considering that Jane and her family were to be still visiting the children's grandparents in Halifax. Laurien slowly turned toward the source of the noise, which was emanating from the other side of her front door, though there was no shadow in the window to declare a physical presence behind it.

Pausing for a few more moments, Laurien's eyes flitted to where the back door lay waiting for her to escape through, should the need arise, before taking one last swig of her drink and heading towards the front door. She opened it slowly, though, as she had suspected, there was no one at the doorstep. Laurien's gaze extended out to the front yard and she immediately spotted a solitary figure standing amidst the long blades of her overgrown lawn.

Laurien let out a small huff of what could only be described as one of nervous laughter, before leaning against the doorframe with her arms folded against her chest. She couldn't help but stare. The way she saw it, she had two options, though neither seemed too tempting at the moment as her stomach seemed to be performing nauseating summersaults within her. She bit her bottom lip as she regarded the person with searching eyes, her fingers tapping against her arm in deliberation. Laurien took a deep breath, before enacting her tentative decision.

"Well," She called to him as she gently kicked the door open wider, not breaking eye contact all the while. "Are you going to help me pack or not?"

 **It's obvious, huh? Yup.**

 **Game of Thrones has dominated my summer, so good, but so frustrating. Don't worry, no spoilers here. Saw Baby Driver, love the soundtrack. Saw Detroit when I was already emotionally wrecked, so that made it worse, good movie though, good soundtrack. Read a lot of depressing books to get a head start on the knowledge that I'll need for my future dream job. Woo. Saw a Jack Johnson concert, crazy wonderful.**

 **Has anyone been listening to the My Favorite Murder Podcast? It is fantastic! All the morbid humor you could ever need.**

 **Unfortunately, one of my hermit crabs has passed on. He seemed quite old when I first got him. RIP Machina. They say that hermit crabs are rather social and don't like being alone, so I got another little guy to keep Ozymandias company and named him Lito, after the magnificent character from Sense8.**

 **Thank you for reading, and for sticking around with me on this journey of over two years, hopefully there will still be more to come. Thanks again, I love you all, hope you enjoyed, and please comment or review, it really makes my day to hear from you!**


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